East End Studios Advances Plan for $1B Film Studio in DTLA

East End Studios has moved forward with a plan to build a $1 billion film studio in L.A.’s Arts District.

The unit of New York-based East End Capital was approved by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission to build the 720,400-square-foot studios at 1338 East 6th Street and 1321 Wholesale Street, in Downtown, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The 15-acre project at 6th and Alameda streets would replace two produce warehouses, which East End bought in 2022 for $240 million.

Dubbed East End Studios ADLA, the development would include 300,000 square feet of offices, 70,000 square feet of support facilities and 16 soundstages.

The project, designed by locally based Grimshaw Architects, was revised in July to align the offices closer to the street, where they could engage the community. The five-story buildings will be sheathed in two shades of gray, with banks of vertical windows.

The updated plan puts the offices into two buildings at the northeast and northwest corners of the property, where 6th Street abuts both Mill and Alameda streets.

The soundstages would be built at the rear. Earlier plans had placed the soundstages at both corners.

When completed, the East End Studios Arts District campus under the Sixth Street bridge would be among the largest independent studios in the state.

The project is one of three potential studio campuses along the Alameda corridor in the southern Arts District.

A couple blocks south at 8th Street, Atlas Capital Group plans soundstages at a former Los Angeles Times printing plant. Prologis has also considered building soundstages on a former Greyhound bus station at 7th Street.

Meanwhile, East End Studios is building a $230 million, 237,000-square-foot East End Studios Mission Campus at 2233-2241 Jesse Street, across the L.A. River in Boyle Heights.

In April 2023, East End Capital unveiled the look of its proposed 410,000-square-foot studio campus on 9 acres south of the 134 freeway in Glendale. The East End Studios San Fernando Campus would include 10 soundstages, plus 165,000 square feet of offices and support facilities.

East End Capital, which pivoted to studio development in 2020, now oversees 2.7 million square feet of studios across 38 soundstages, with more projects in the works.

— Dana Bartholomew