Direct Equity Source’s Augusta Studios will be the very first purpose-built movie and television studio in the Augusta, Georgia area.

The Opportunity:
As international demand for content continues to increase, purpose-built studio space has become more difficult to secure. The State of Georgia has become a hotbed for content creation with one of the strongest movie, television and e-sports tax incentives. Augusta, GA wants to play a part in the state’s success and benefit

The Solution:
With over 311,000 sq. ft. of planned purpose-built space, Augusta Studios will attract and support studio level movies and television series. This will allow Augusta, GA to benefit from the $4.8billion dollar Georgia movie and television industry.

The Problem:
As the second largest city in Georgia, Augusta lacks significant movie and television infrastructure and has ZERO sq. ft of purpose[1]built studio space to support studio level productions.

The Ask:
DES Augusta Studios is seeking a financial partner for its US$61M development. Presuming the studio is financed through a combination of equity and debt, DES Augusta Studios is seeking US$30.5M.

The value of the real estate and operational company is expected to be 2X the cost of construction within for years of operation.

The Progress:
Augusta Studios has the full support from the City of Augusta and has recently secured 100 acres of prime real estate located in Richmond County, GA and just minutes from Augusta proper. A 50 page feasibility study has been completed by studio advisors Roadtown Enterprises that fully supports this endeavor.

The Target Client:
Augusta Studios will provide studio infrastructure and services available to all major and mini major studios

The Management:
Direct Equity Source, along with founder and producer, Warren Ostergard, have engaged Roadtown Enterprises to serve as the studio advisor and operator until the studio is fully operational.

The Need For Sound Stages:
With the world wide growth of streaming platforms, content creation has become the sole focus of every content provider. As “binge watching” becomes more the norm, content creators are under increasing pressure to produce high quality, large amounts of content to keep up with that demand. Disney, HBO, Paramount, and many others are capitalizing on this phenomenon, changing the studio landscape forever. Between 2019- 2020, the number of global online video subscriptions increased by 26%, reaching 1.2 billion subscriptions. This growth is expected to continue in the coming years with industry experts predicting that by 2025, subscriptions are going to reach 1.6 billion globally per the Motion Picture Association’s graph below . In 2020, a record-breaking 202.2 billion was spent on making and acquiring new feature films and TV programming, roughly a 16% increase from 2019, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. All of the streaming services are spending billions of dollars a year to entice viewership and with that comes hundreds of more film and television productions that will need to be produced and will need to find studio space. As content creation continues to increase, so must stage space availability. Over the last three years, studio occupancy has been at or above 95%, forcing some content creators to find other states or even countries to complete projects.