{"id":1027422,"date":"2026-08-27T13:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1027422\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T13:07:18","slug":"producer-takes-over-former-quixote-studio-in-pacoima-as-hollywood-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1027422\/","title":{"rendered":"Producer takes over former Quixote studio in Pacoima as Hollywood struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Production services vendor Quixote stunned Hollywood in April when it said it was winding down most of its Los Angeles soundstage business, <\/a>delivering another blow to an industry already buffeted by steep losses in film and TV production.<\/p>\n

Now, one of those facilities is attempting to stage a comeback.<\/p>\n

Film and TV producer Manny Halley said he has taken over a 125,000-square-foot former Quixote North Valley complex on Montague Street in Pacoima under a 25-year lease with an option to buy, and plans to reopen it this fall under the name Imani Studio. The land is owned by Rexford Industrial Realty, which is not a party to the production business.<\/p>\n

Halley\u2019s credits include the \u201cTrue to the Game\u201d film trilogy that featured Vivica A. Fox, and the BET reality TV series \u201cKeyshia Cole: The Way It Is,\u201d which ran on BET from 2006 to 2008.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Halley declined to disclose the price he paid, but said the lease is worth more than $25 million and that the cost to build the facility three years ago was about $19 million. The deal was financed with capital from his Imani Media Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now is a unique time for independent producers because we don\u2019t have to sit back and wait for a studio,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in order for us to build a library and keep going, we have to keep costs down. So having your own stage is going to keep costs down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Producer <\/p>\n

Producer Manny Halley has taken over ownership of one of the former Quixote North Valley studio facilities in Pacoima.<\/p>\n

(Dae Howerton and Dallas J. Logan)<\/p>\n

Halley said he was also motivated by the ongoing production crisis in L.A. and the continued loss of industry jobs. His company has shot 18 productions in California, 14 of which received a state production incentive.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody\u2019s got to believe in Hollywood,\u201d Halley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a sad industry right now, and I want to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is making a long bet on a market a much larger company has struggled with. Former owner Hudson Pacific announced it was shutting down most of its L.A. soundstages as well as operations in Atlanta as part of a cost-reduction move.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles-based real estate company bought Quixote in 2022 for $360 million<\/a>, saying at the time that the acquisition would address the growing demand for soundstage space. Quixote was originally founded in 1995.<\/p>\n

Though L.A. area soundstages had average occupancy rates of about 90% from 2016 to 2022, their business plunged in 2023 amid the work stoppages of the writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes, according to data from the nonprofit FilmLA, which tracks on-location shoot days in the Greater L.A. area. In 2024, the average occupancy rate was 63%.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping production infrastructure active and investing in California\u2019s capacity to support film and television is essential to our long-term competitiveness,\u201d California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell said in a statement. \u201cFacilities like this help keep productions here, sustain good-paying jobs, and support the thousands of businesses and workers that make up our entertainment economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halley said he plans to invest $2 million to $6 million into the facility, including additional staff and LED volume walls. He retained three employees to help run operations and hopes to hire others who previously worked there.<\/p>\n

He said he plans to use the facility, which has four soundstages, to shoot his own shows and movies, but also intends to rent out space to other productions, including student projects. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to give everybody their opportunity to shine,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to give them their own playing field to create and make their visions come to life with affordable stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even if outside productions don\u2019t rent the space, he said the facility could sustain itself on his company\u2019s projects. Imani Media Group has a distribution arm that has worked with Amazon, Tubi and the major theater chains.<\/p>\n

By late September, Halley said he intends to start shooting a \u201cTrue to the Game\u201d TV series at the Pacoima facility, as well as the BET comedy \u201cLot Patrol,\u201d which the network recently picked up for an additional five episodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupporting Black ownership and entrepreneurship across the entertainment industry remains deeply important to BET,\u201d Brian Rikuda, BET\u2019s executive vice president of enterprise growth strategy, business operations, and programming strategy, said in a statement. \u201cAs Manny Halley expands Imani Studios into a 125,000-square-foot production home, we\u2019re proud to continue our partnership rooted in a shared vision to create culturally impactful entertainment and expand opportunity in our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Production services vendor Quixote stunned Hollywood in April when it said it was winding down most of its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1027423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[410875,12007,1582,276,638,13332,6808,1020,410872,410873,3195,2961,224,5337,6524,46260,151234,410874,410876],"class_list":["post-1027422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-average-occupancy-rate","tag-bet","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-company","tag-cost","tag-facility","tag-film","tag-halley","tag-hollywood-struggle","tag-industry","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-operation","tag-pacoima","tag-producer","tag-production-business","tag-steep-loss"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117167631428335548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1027423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}