Construction begins on new South Side Regal Mile Studios

$100 million project in South Shore neighborhood aimed to boost economic development

It’s a small space, but there are some big plans afoot. 

City officials and Mayor Lori Lightfoot were on hand Monday for groundbreaking on the new Regal Mile Studios in the South Shore neighborhood in an area bounded by Stony Island, 77th, Harper, and South Chicago Avenue. The $100 million project aims to bring a “state-of-the-art media campus” to a blighted era of the city and to create more than a thousand jobs, hoping to become “The Hollywood Of The Midwest”. The new studio isn’t far away from the historic Avalon Regal Theater, which was a concert venue in the 1990s and 2000s and currently undergoing renovation and also near the South Chicago and Avalon Park neighborhoods.  

The development’s address is 1431-1525 E. 77th St with construction starting later this year and is slated to open in fall 2024. According to its website, Regal Mile Studios hopes to “bring a state-of-the-art TV and production campus to [nearby] South Chicago. It will provide the area with job opportunities and accelerate the transformation of the neighborhood into a social and cultural hub.” Partners in the project include Id8 Ventures, headed by The Chi producer Derek Dudley; Loop Capital; and Alpco Ventures, among others. Plans for the 380,000-foot, seven acre parcel of land include five soundstages, production facilities, a gym, and a cafeteria.

“There’s no place else on the planet like the city of Chicago when it comes to our creatives,” said Mayor Lightfoot, who faces a tough re-election challenge later this month. “What we must do is make sure that we are continuing to invest in them.” 

In addition, the new studio plans to work with Chicago Public Schools to provide educational programs for young people. 

This comes as Chicago is expanding the number of studios in the city to house television and film production, who has the successful Cinespace Studios on the West Side, home to Dick Wolf’s “Chicago” shows, Starz’s Power IV and the former Fox drama Empire. Other production houses located in Chicago include the NBC Tower and the now-demolished Harpo studios, once home to The Oprah Winfrey Show. Chicago however, is facing competition from other locales such as Atlanta, who built a tremendous film studio community in recent years; Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver; and Connecticut, who grabbed Jerry Springer’s and Steve Wilkos’ shows from Chicago in the late 2000s thanks to generous tax credits. 

The project is located on the western edge of South Shore, a community area on the Lakefront and is two miles south of where the Obama Presidential Center is being built. South Shore was a mostly white and Jewish enclave until the mid-1960s when the neighborhood started to diversify. By the late 1970s, South Shore became more than 90 percent Black as problems with poverty and crime worsened. Also affecting the community was the constant downsizing of the South Works steel plant, which sat in South Chicago at 79th street and the Lakefront until its closure in 1992. But at the same time, South Shore developed into a solid middle-class Black community.

The area where the studio sits in near ramps connecting Stony Island to the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road, which tower over the 79th/Stony Island/South Chicago intersection. In the 1950s and 1960s, Stony Island had a mini “auto row”, with car dealerships lined the western side of the street including one owned by the Cubs’ Ernie Banks. In the 1970s, the area became populated by night clubs, but all were torn down by the 1990s. The 1978 film Stony Island about an up-and-coming R&B band (featuring a before-famous Rae Dawn Chong and the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs) was also set in the area.

The 79th-Stony Island-South Chicago intersection is also known for one of the most accident-prone in the Chicago area (from personal experience, crossing here as a pedestrian is akin to bungee-jumping.)

In all, the new project is sure to benefit the three neighborhoods where the new studio is located and hire more minorities in a business who continues to lag behind in diversity. And as a resident of Avalon Park, it’s cool to have a movie studio nearby.