Hollywood is coming to Winnersh Triangle. Frasers Property UK announced that long-term lease contracts have been exchanged with Stage Fifty, at its 90-acre business park, Winnersh Triangle, near Reading. Stage Fifty, a company that specialises in building film and TV stages, is opening its second UK site at Winnersh Triangle. It will bring an estimated £50m economic boost to the UK economy annually, creating around 500 new jobs in the UK film and production sector, and supporting a further 500 indirect jobs in the supply chain.
The deal will ultimately create around 120,000 sq ft of studio space, one of these studios will be the world’s largest fully encapsulated virtual production stage. The stage easily fuses computing graphics with live-action footage in real-time and will be supported by 25,000 sq ft of offices and 50,000 sq ft of workshops.
Stage Fifty specialises in providing the film and TV industry with purpose-built studio space and innovative production services. The deal enables Stage Fifty to immediately operate at the business park, providing workshop space and offices for production use, with the first of the bespoke sound stages, to be delivered in 2022.
Key to the development is a purpose-built virtual production stage that measures 30,000 sq ft. The stage is being created in partnership with Fin Studio Pictures and features an 84m x 7m screen with more than 140 million pixels.
The UK studio market continues to cater for the ever-growing demand for filming space, primarily from U.S.
Rupert Batho, Commercial Director, Frasers Property commented: “The diversity of accommodation at Winnersh Triangle, combined with our market leading facilities and integrated transport infrastructure, has been at the heart of attracting Stage Fifty. It joins the likes of Pip Studios, Virgin Media and Evertz, thus expanding our technology enriched, creative industry cluster and provides the film industry with much needed capacity here in the UK. This is a transformational step in the continued evolution of Winnersh Triangle as one of the Thames Valley’s most dynamic economic areas.”
James Enright, CEO, Stage Fifty, said: “Winnersh Triangle is the perfect site for our second film studio in the UK. In partnership with Fin Studio Pictures, we’re building the world’s largest VP volume, which will be the centrepiece of our pioneering creative tech hub. The substantial investment in the site will grow the UK economy, support existing local businesses, and create hundreds of new jobs at the studios and throughout the wider supply chain. We’ve redeveloped existing spaces on the site to create offices and workshops that are in use now, and the stages at Winnersh Film Studios, including the VP stage, will be operational in 2022. Our stages are robust, high-quality, and quick to build. And as 90% of the construction materials are reusable or recycled, they’re more sustainable too.”
