Plans have been formally put on hold for a 91-acre film and TV soundstage complex outside of London that had been billed as a major foray for the Sunset Studios brand outside the United States.
Sunset Studios, owned by operator Hudson Pacific along with significant investor Blackstone, had announced the project in 2021 during what may have been the height of the streaming content spending boom on film and TV projects.
The owners had touted the Sunset Waltham Cross Studios project as opening in 2026, with Hudson Pacific CEO Victor Coleman saying the company had the ability to start construction in 2022. But a broad pullback in spending by major studios and a focus on cost-cutting and profitability for streaming platforms has impacted some speculative building of studio soundstage complexes.
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“I am extremely disappointed to learn that the planned Sunset Studios facility will now not proceed. It is my understanding that the market conditions are currently not favourable for new film studios across the UK,” stated Mark Mills-Bishop, the leader of the local borough council of Broxbourne that had been working with the Sunset joint venture on the project, on March 17.
“We share their disappointment that a studio development is no longer feasible at this time given market conditions,” read an accompanying statement attributed to Hudson Pacific and Blackstone. As of Dec. 2024, the project was still listed in the company’s regulatory filing as among “properties currently under construction and future development pipelines.” A rep for Hudson Pacific did not reply for further comment.
The project, located 17 miles north of central London, was to have 1.2 million square feet of production space, 21 soundstages totaling 470,000 square feet, 7 stage-adjacent production offices along with a theater/screening room and 7-acre backlot.
The soundstage complex was one of the many bets that Hudson Pacific has made since Blackstone took a 49 percent stake in 2020 in the operator’s Hollywood Media Portfolio (which includes Sunset Bronson Studios in Los Angeles, which Netflix leases). In 2022, the operator also inked a $360 million deal to buy Quixote Studios, a production services and stage supplies rental firm, to fuel its growth.
Then came the writers’ and actors’ strikes a year later, which also coincided with major studios trimming their production costs and cutting down the number of features, television shows and television episodes produced. On a February 20 earnings call, Coleman signaled that this “austerity” period may be subsiding, however. “Some of the pressure from austerity measures may be alleviated as growing number of streamers, including Disney, Warner Bros, Discovery and Paramount reach profitability,” the exec said.
The Los Angeles company now operates 56 film and TV stages with plans ahead for the development of a complex in New York, Sunset Pier 94 Studios. “As for Pier 94 Studios, the project is on time and on budget,” Coleman said on the Feb. earnings call. “Structural components are complete, exterior skin and roofing are nearly finished and the work is shifting to interior mechanical systems and build-out.”
