Loop Capital Breaks Ground On South Side Filming Studio

Remote work could be hard to find for movie and TV production crews, so developers are using filming studios rather than offices or retail to build a South Side area’s commercial real estate future.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $100 million South Shore filming studio project at 7824 South Chicago Avenue, the Sun-Times reported. The 222,000-square-foot property will have five soundstages, a gym, cafeteria and recreation space. It will rise on seven acres of land that has sat vacant for more than 20 years.

The Regal Mile Studios project is being led by Jim Reynolds of Loop Capital Real Estate Partners and Derek Dudley, a producer of the Showtime TV show “The Chi.” Reynolds’ firm helped raise debt and equity for the project, according to published reports.

“This one is near and dear because we’re going to take these young people, we’re going to revitalize this community and bring economic activity, and jobs, and hope back,” Reynolds, who grew up in Englewood, said at the ceremony.

Lightfoot has said the privately funded project will help secure Chicago’s place in the film industry and allow the city to add to the 15 long-running shows that are already filming in the Windy City. Cinespace Studios, which produces the NBC TV show trio “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Med.,” already calls the city home and contributed to its record $700 million in film production revenue last year.

“The reason you see so many South Side elected officials here is because they all know that this investment is going to endure, to benefit the entire South Side, and dare I say the entire city,” Lightfoot said at the groundbreaking on Monday. “This is a big moment of pride.”

The project is expected to bring jobs to the area and Alderman Michelle Harris of the Eighth Ward said she has been in talks with Chicago Public Schools to create a training program that will offer high-paying union jobs that don’t require college degrees to students.

While the project is privately funded, Lightfoot says the studio aligns with her INVEST South/West program, which uses public money to spur economic development activity in struggling neighborhoods.

— Victoria Pruitt