Now it’s official: Pinewood Studios of London this morning formally announced its film and TV studio venture “coming soon” to rural central Fayette County.
In a press release, the company said construction will begin immediately on the “Pinewood Atlanta” venture with the first phase of five soundstages ready for action in January of next year.
Pinewood Atlanta will provide “a full service film and entertainment studio complex” on the 288-acre site directly across from Rivers Elementary School.
“The project is fully funded and will become a world-class studio for the production of film, television, music and video games,” according to the news release from Pinewood Studios, which is famous for hosting the filming of the James Bond movie series.
The first phase consists of the soundstages at 100,000 sq. ft. with another 100,000 sq. ft. of office space and 200,000 sq. ft. of workshops and service provider space.
Pinewood also cited a “vocational job skills training component” to produce the necessary workforce for the “hundreds” of new jobs to be created at the studio, but specific details are not being released yet. Economic developers have announced that approximately 2,000 jobs are expected to be a result of direct and indirect employment just in the first phase alone.
The second and third phases on the drawing board would add another 600,000 sq. ft. of stages and more than 70 acres of managed back lot space.
Pinewood Atlanta is a joint venture of Pinewood Studios parent company Pinewood Shepperton and a local investment group called River’s Rock LLC. River’s Rock is slated to fund the land and studio construction while Pinewood will provide the joint venture with sales and marketing services in exchange for holding shares in the company.
Though the project will be built in a very rural area of Fayette County just north of Piedmont Fayette Hospital, developers have pledged that the buildings will be a significant distance from Sandy Creek Road, and additional landscaping will be installed to further screen the development.
Plans are for the site to be annexed into Fayetteville to allow for the provision of sewer service to the site.
Below, rendering of entrance to Pinewood-Atlanta Studios off Sandy Creek Road in central Fayette County. Rendering provided by Pinewood Studios.
