A $450 million studio complex is set to arrive in Hollywood, offering a major bet on the industry’s recovery while potentially helping California stem the financial losses linked to the ongoing exodus.
Echelon Studios Hollywood is designed like a sprawling studio lot—but instead of spreading across acres of land, its stages and facilities will rise inside a vertical industrial complex.
The development packs the equivalent of a 10-acre studio onto a five-acre property, architect Andrew Wright of RIOS told The Los Angeles Times.
“Everything is crammed as tight as it can possibly go,” Wright told the outlet.
Developer and landlord David Simon is moving ahead despite repeated warnings that Hollywood has lost the dominance it once held. Instead, he is making a substantial investment in the industry’s future.
Simon remains convinced that Hollywood retains its creative appeal—and that artists would prefer to work close to home whenever possible.
That belief led him to propose demolishing an aging Sears building on Santa Monica Boulevard and replacing it with a new type of production facility, scheduled to open next year.
The project began taking shape five years ago, when well-funded streaming companies such as Netflix were commissioning new productions at an extraordinary rate.
Echelon Studios Hollywood will compress a 10-acre studio operation onto a five-acre site, according to RIOS architect Andrew Wright
The complex is planned to include several soundproof production stages
Additional amenities will include offices, a cafe and screening rooms
Although that production boom has cooled, Simon continues to see an opening for Echelon Studios Hollywood. His optimism comes despite feature-film production in California falling 20 percent during the second quarter of this year, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit organization.
Television production declined by 30 percent over the same period, FilmLA reported.
Simon expects California to maintain a reliable flow of film and television projects, while arguing that Echelon’s unconventional design and range of facilities will help it compete with rival studios.
Expanded state tax incentives—and the possibility of a 20 percent federal tax credit for filming—are also helping rekindle interest in Los Angeles as a production hub.
“Everybody I talk to in this industry would like nothing more than to stay home and film in LA,” Jamie Crosbie, a film and television executive who will lead studio operations at Echelon, told The Times.
Echelon Studios will feature five soundstages, production support facilities and a dedicated base camp for trucks and equipment.
The 600,000-square-foot complex will also contain a cafe and screening rooms, The Times reported.
At the top of the building, the project will include traditional-style bungalows that once provided office and dressing areas. Over the years, spaces like these became private retreats for prominent actors, writers and producers.
Developer David Simon says artists want the chance to work in Los Angeles, even as film and television production declines across California
A render shows how office spaces will be located above the soundstages
Five sound stages will be in the middle of the building, while office space will be on the rear ends
‘People fell in love with them, and so they became the premier real estate on the lot,’ Wright told The Times.
‘Every production team wanted to live in one for a year while they filmed their production. We built this neighborhood in the sky based on this extremely Hollywood typology.’
Their hardest challenge was soundproofing the stage, especially with their proximity to the parking lot.
‘Soundstages are acoustically isolated boxes, and any adjacent vibration is a risk to compromise the building,’ Wright told the outlet.
They landed on creating layers of insulation, drywall and thick concrete to block out the vehicles below.
And Simon, nor his company Bardas Investment Group, is planning on stopping after Echelon.
MUST READ: Michael Douglas Says He Slept With Kathleen Turner in Memoir
Simon is currently planning a $600 million renovation and expansion at the Television Center, which will be an expansion of Echelon, he told The Times.
As for now, he already has potential tenants taking tours of his upcoming studios and in talks about leasing space.
There will also be old-fashioned bungalows at the top of the building
‘People fell in love with them, and so they became the premier real estate on the lot,’ Wright told The Times
‘Hollywood is the greatest brand in the world. It’s not only a place, it’s an industry,’ he told The Times.
Simon’s investment comes as California is seeing a mass exodus of residents due to crime.
A total of 53,934 people left Los Angeles County between July 2024 and July 2025, according to latest population data from the US Census.
Former residents who spoke to the Daily Mail in April blamed high rents and crime-ridden streets for their decision to abandon the Democrat-run city, which is also in the grip of a joblessness crunch.
Sherly Rivera Feher, 30, moved from Koreatown in LA to Overland Park, Kansas, in December. The native Angeleno had finally had enough.
Feher told the Daily Mail that she and her husband were begrudgingly paying $3,800 a month for their two-bedroom apartment near Glendale that was steps away from a number of homeless people and prostitutes.
‘It started to get really pricey, and we also just didn’t feel safe at all,’ Feher said.
‘Paying that much, we were hoping to at least get some safety as well… There are needles on the floor and everything [in Koreatown], and just a lot of the mental illness and drug addiction out there.’
Governor Gavin Newsom has seen thousands leave in recent years as many complain about crime rates
Echelon is expected to open next year, despite the mass exodus of citizens from the state
Matthew Thomas recently moved to Illinois from LA after spending a decade in the City of Angels and even raising a daughter there.
‘I’m so done with LA, dude! I’m so done!’ Thomas said in a July TikTok video.
The final straw for him was a homeless person trespassing on his property after climbing over the fence and sitting in his yard.
‘It’s bulls**t! They don’t do anything about these people. It’s some transient, drugged-up loser… It scared the living daylights out of my wife and daughter who’s out there.’
Despite former resident upset about crime, Governor Gavin Newsom expanded tax credits to help the film industry in the Golden State in September.
‘California is the nation’s entertainment capital. It is the home of storytellers, dreamers, artists, entrepreneurs, and creators who define culture for the rest of the world,’ Newsom said in a statement.
‘This legislation protects the extraordinary people who make this industry possible and makes it unmistakably clear: California is still the future of film and television. We have the talent. We have the infrastructure. We have the creative community. And we have an ecosystem that simply cannot be replicated anywhere else.’
The studio replaced an old Sears building located on the same lot
People interested in leasing parts of the studio have already begun touring, Simon said
The Film and Television Tax Credit brings billions of dollars into California’s economy, which supports thousands of jobs.
The credit started in 2009, and has since generated $34.2 billion in economic activity.
The Daily Mail has reached out to developers and Newsom for comment.