Filmmaker Aaron David Roberts’ lifelong dream has been to set up movie studios in his hometown of San Diego. Now, that dream seems to be ready for lights, camera, action.
Roberts is known for producing TV series such as Chartered and The Cast Members, along with movies including The Last Deal and Three Weddings. He grew up in San Diego and started working on films for his dad’s production company when he was 10 years old. As a child, he was familiar with Stu Segall Productions, a movie studio in town, but it pivoted to producing military and police training exercise videos.
Ever since, Roberts has wanted to build his own studio space.
“I had an idea of, ‘Hey, if San Diego can build something again, if we can build the infrastructure, we can attract film and TV production, because we’ve done it before,’” he says.
Courtesy of IMDB
Last month, the Chula Vista City Council unanimously approved a letter of intent with Chula Vista Entertainment Complex, or CVEC, to start the process of designing and constructing a 89,000-square-foot structure that will host virtual production studios, post-production facilities, and coworking spaces.
“The Chula Vista Entertainment [Complex] will be the only of its kind in San Diego County,” said Chula Vista Mayor John McCann in a statement. “This project will set a new standard for our region and will bring critical new economic development to South County.”
Roberts says he picked Chula Vista because the city has been eager to partner on other studios, putting in bids to build a Netflix studio and Amazon headquarters.
“So I knew that this city has a bigger-thinking mentality of trying to attract industry and attract spaces,” he adds. “Both from a mindset perspective and from a practical perspective of infrastructure, we thought Chula Vista was a real perfect place.”
The plan is to complete the project in two phases. The first will be part of the Millenia Library on Millenia Avenue, which the city is already constructing. Roberts will take over the top two stories of the library building to create co-working spaces, along with podcast studios, edit bays, photography rooms, executive offices, and “a Hollywood-style facility of post-production, edit suites, an audio mixing spot, audio recording, and all the facilities that you need for post-production,” Roberts explains.
The next phase is building the 89,000-square-foot virtual entertainment complex. Roberts says it will include “the next generation of production technology,” including a virtual production studio that will attract TV and movie studios. He expects the whole project will take three years to finish and will cost $85 million. Funding comes from venture capital, and, eventually, studios will pay to use the space, bringing in profit.
“We will be developing and filming and producing our own content, creating and optioning our own projects, and then funding our own projects,” he explains. “But the bulk of our revenue is going to come from being a single-source production studio hub, basically from pre-production through post-production.”
He says through his connections in the film industry, he already has interest from studios and is now gathering letters of intent from those who will use the space.
“We’re very confident that we’re going to have plenty of business coming into the space, mainly because there aren’t a lot of facilities that are like this—that are virtual production, that are independently owned and operated, and that are going to be the size of studios that we’re actually building,” he adds.
He believes the space will have a positive economic impact on Chula Vista—his estimate is about $544 million over 10 years—and create jobs that otherwise would only be found in Los Angeles.
“I think the biggest piece for me really is about building up the local creative community,” he says. “There are so many talented folks in San Diego, and I [want to create] more opportunities for them and more opportunities for the next generation of creative artists. Everybody wants to do social media creation or be an influencer, be on YouTube, but a lot of people don’t know where to start, especially if you’re talking about how to actually monetize that and make a living off that or how to enter the film industry and be a writer or be a director. It could be daunting to figure that out nowadays, especially when you feel like there’s endless competition. So what we really want to do is nurture that and grow that here locally and really become a hub where the industry starts looking at us and how we’re doing it.”
