A $450 million studio complex is heading to Hollywood in a bold bet that Los Angeles can rebuild its entertainment industry and stem the flow of money and jobs leaving California.
Echelon Studios Hollywood is designed to function like a major traditional studio lot—only its stages and amenities will be arranged inside a vertical industrial structure.
The project effectively packs 10 acres of studio capacity 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 newspaper.
Developer and landlord David Simon is moving ahead despite widespread warnings that Hollywood has lost much of its former dominance. Instead, he is making a major investment in the industry’s uncertain future.
Simon says he still believes in Hollywood’s creative pull—and in the desire of artists to make films and television programs close to home.
That vision led him to propose demolishing an aging Sears building on Santa Monica Boulevard and replacing it with a new type of production hub, scheduled to open next year.
The development began five years ago, when well-funded streaming companies such as Netflix were commissioning and releasing new projects at a breakneck pace.
Echelon Studios Hollywood will compress 10 acres of studio operations onto a five-acre site, according to RIOS architect Andrew Wright
The complex is planned to include several soundproof production stages
Amenities will include office space, a cafe and screening rooms
Although that production boom has cooled, Simon remains convinced the studio can succeed in Los Angeles. Feature-film production in California fell 20 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit organization.
Television production declined even more sharply, dropping 30 percent during the same period, FilmLA reported.
Simon expects California to maintain a reliable flow of film and television work, while arguing that Echelon’s compact, vertically organized design will help distinguish it from competing facilities.
California’s expanded production tax credits—and the possibility of a 20 percent federal filming credit—are also helping revive interest in Los Angeles.
“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 oversee studio operations at Echelon, told The Times.
Echelon Studios will feature five soundstages, production-support facilities and a 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, old-style bungalows will provide additional space. The structures were originally used as offices and dressing rooms before evolving into private retreats for prominent actors, writers and producers.
Developer David Simon says Los Angeles-based artists want to work close to home, 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.
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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 Our News Outlet 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 Our News Outlet 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.
Our News Outlet has reached out to developers and Newsom for comment.
