Super Studios building sound stages in Mansfield

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

Hollywood is coming to Mansfield, proclaimed Mayor Michael Evans at Monday’s Mansfield City Council meeting.

Well, maybe not the entire movie industry, but at least a part will be moving in starting in 2024. At the Monday meeting, the council approved an agreement between the Mansfield Economic Development Corp. and Super Studios to build movie studios in south Mansfield.

The minimum construction investment will be $70 million, but $250 million will likely be the total construction cost, said MEDC executive director Jason Moore.

Film producers Creative Tank Inc. will develop the mixed-use development that will include five clusters with 50,000 square feet of sound stages and 50,000 square feet of mill shops in each cluster. Between the clusters will be 1 million square feet of retail, themed restaurants, salons, fitness centers, salons, studios, lofts, multi-family and two hotels. The development will employ up to 2,000, Moore said.

The studios can be used to film television shows and films, Moore said.

Construction on the site will begin in 2024 with completion of at least four of the clusters by the end of 2025, Moore said.

The agreement includes the sale of 72 acres near Klein Tools and Seventh Avenue for $7.3 million, with a $1 million down payment. The MEDC will finance the loan with a 4 percent interest rate, with the interest payments going back into infrastructure (roads and sewage) for the site. The developers will make no payments for the first five years and receive a 50 percent tax abatement for the first 10 years.  Other incentives are a return of 65 percent of the hotel-motel funds for that site for the first seven years and reimbursement of the mixed beverage sales tax of establishments at that location until 2030.

The mixed-used development will be similar to Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Ga., where the Avenger movies were filmed, Moore said.

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