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

East End Studios has tweaked its plans for a $1 billion film studio in L.A.’s Arts District.

The unit of New York-based East End Capital has filed revised plans to create a more “people-centered” studio project at 1338 East 6th Street and 1321 Wholesale Street, in Downtown, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

In June 2022, East End bought two produce warehouses for $240 million, with plans to replace them with a 720,400-square-foot entertainment complex.

Plans for the $1 billion project now call for a 15-acre studio project on East 6th Street, between Alameda and Mills streets. Dubbed the East End Studios ADLA, it would include 16 soundstages, 300,000 square feet of offices and 70,000 square feet of support facilities.

When completed, the ADLA Campus under the Sixth Street bridge would be among the largest independent studios in the state.

The project, designed by Grimshaw Architects, has been revised to align the offices closer to the street, where they could interact with 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 Street and Alameda Street. Earlier plans had placed the soundstages at both corners.

“As studio buildings can create a lot of inactive street frontage, we re-examined how we are incorporating people-centered architectural design principles,” Andrew Byrne, managing partner of Grimshaw’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement.

“By positioning the office space on the most prominent corners, we have more than doubled the amount of activated street frontage, creating a more engaging streetscape for the community.”

Needed approvals include a conditional use permit and mandatory site plan review, according to Urbanize. If approved and built, East End Studios estimates more than 1,000 people could work at the complex.

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 has broken ground on 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 of last year, 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.

— Dana Bartholomew