Derek Dudley, the executive producer of The Chi and Loop Capital exec Jim Reynolds, are building a $60 million film and television studio on the south side of Chicago, according to Reel Chicago.
The film and television studio will be called Regal Mile Studios and built on seven acres of now-vacant land on South Stony Island Boulevard, South Chicago Avenue and East 77th Street. The studio will be approximately 220,000 square feet and include six sound studios. The Chi producer said that he wants Chi-town to be the new Tinseltown.
“We want to help make Chicago the Hollywood of the Midwest,” he said. “It checks a lot of boxes for the city: expanding upon the Invest South/West program, focusing on the film industry and making Chicago a destination for creating content, and the mayor wanting to bring investment to the South Side of Chicago. For me and Jim, two Black men from the South Side of Chicago, we have the opportunity to come together to invest in our community and change the trajectory.”
Regal Mile Studios is expected to employ up to 1,500 people. The project will also help Mayor Lori Lightfoot build up the city’s neighborhoods with her Invest South/West program. Lightfoot, 5th Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston and planning director Maurice Cox are all in support of the Regal Mile Studios project.
The film studio project will also partner with the Chicago Public School system to give junior and senior high schoolers internships. The studio will train students for high-paying skilled union jobs.
Dudley and Reynolds, who both grew up on the south side of the city, plan to begin construction on the studio in the fall, provided the zoning is approved in time.
“If the zoning is approved, we feel like we’re already there,” Reynolds said. No public incentives are being sought, he added.
The project should be finished by late 2022.
