The Creative District Improvement Company has teamed up with property developers Quinn Estates to invest £250 million ($292 million) in Ashford International Studios, a new film and TV studios in Ashford, South-East England, which they say will create 3,000 jobs. The 15-acre site was formerly a locomotive manufacturing plant until the early 1980s.
The companies will convert the derelict Newtown Railway Works into 80,000 sq. ft. of studio space, 80,000 sq. ft. of ancillary production space, 50,000 sq. ft. of storage space, and a 30,000 sq. ft. media village, which will include the Future Media Center, an educational hub that will be developed in partnership with a cluster of educational institutions in the area. The plans also include a 120-room hotel, 68 serviced apartments, a conference center, and a 10,000 sq. ft. gym, restaurant and leisure space. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.
The Creative District Improvement Company will fund the Future Media Center in partnership with the University of Kent and three other universities in the area. They will also work with the publicly funded Thames Estuary Production Corridor, a project that aims to create a creative industries hub in the region.
Damian Green, MP for Ashford, said: “Creating a new center of excellence in the film and creative industries in Ashford would be one of the most exciting prospects that the town could have.”
TCDI Co. previously announced plans to invest £50 million ($58.4 million) in Twickenham Studios, London.