A historic Hollywood studio may be zeroing in on Austin as its new base of operations amid its prolonged legal battle with California.
Previously, Texas had been named alongside states like Tennessee and Georgia as potential landing spots for Paramount after the board approved a plan to relocate the Hollywood studio from California. The conditions for the relocation are that if Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, refuses to engage in settlement negotiations over the antitrust lawsuit regarding the studio’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. by Oct. 1, then the company will leave the state.
Puck reported last week that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison indicated that the business’s headquarters will be the first operation to move, with incentives from whichever state the company ends up in helping finance the relocation. Paramount has also reportedly been in contact with several states, discussing a five-year plan that would start with a headquarters relocation followed by the majority of the studios’ remaining infrastructure to whichever lucky state is chosen.
Now, according to reports from the New York Post, Austin is being discussed internally as Paramount’s next headquarters. The reports claim that while there have been no official commitments, the entertainment company and its partners are in advanced discussions and focusing on the Bluebonnet Business Center, a massive commercial development on the east side of Austin, as a key target.
The Bluebonnet Business Center houses a 415,000-square-foot mega facility, making it a bigger commercial space than Paramount’s current 360,000-square-foot home in Los Angeles. The Austin facility would have to be retrofitted to house studio spaces and offices, but currently has ongoing renovations adding even more space to the enormous facility, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings.
Bluebonnet Business Center developers Aquila Commercial did not respond to Chron’s inquiries about Paramount’s interest by the time of publication.
The threat to leave California hinges on the antitrust lawsuit over Paramount’s still-in-limbo acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The company indicated that they are prepared to move as Paramount Skydance, or the combined entity of Paramount and Warner, if the merger becomes official. Warner Bros. additionally has a combined studio footprint of around 1 million square feet in and around Los Angeles.
Paramount moving to Texas and Austin would be a welcome addition to the state’s film and television ambitions with its increased incentive program and growing infrastructure. Gov. Greg Abbott pitched Texas as an ideal location for Paramount last week, saying, “Companies that leave high-tax, high-regulation states like California will find opportunity and succeed here.”