Paramount CEO David Ellison eyes Austin as – Business News
As an antitrust battle threatens his Hollywood empire, Paramount boss David Ellison is eyeing a new base in Austin, Texas, The Post has discovered.
The 43-year-old media mogul — dealing with heat from California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his plans to merge Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion mega deal — is actively evaluating a potential film and TV studio within the Texas capital, in line with three people conversant in the matter.
While Paramount has not formally dedicated to the plans, sources mentioned the leisure giant and its companions are in superior negotiations and zeroing in on the Bluebonnet Business Center — a hulking industrial development within the east of town — as a major goal.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has mentioned that he’ll start the method of shifting jobs out of California if AG Rob Bonta fails to barter by Oct. 1. Zuffa LLC
Located at 9219 Old Manor Road, the sprawling industrial park’s crown jewel is Building 4, a 415,000-square-foot cross-dock mega facility.
By comparability, Paramount’s legendary lot in Los Angeles — whose soundstages have produced iconic movies together with “Rear Window,” “The Godfather,” “Grease” and “Forrest Gump” — spans about 360,000 sq. toes.
Warner Bros. — home of legendary movies from “Casablanca” to “Blade Runner” — operates dozens of soundstages throughout LA with a mixed footage of almost 1 million sq. toes.
A Paramount spokesperson declined to remark.
The Bluebonnet Business Center has a sprawling facility that has all the required infrastructure to energy a main studio. David Ellison is eyeing an Austin base for Paramount amid threats to flee California. Google maps
One insider fumed that California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta “is trying to kill Hollywood jobs.” REUTERS
Representatives for Hines, the property’s developer, and Aquila Commercial, the primary broker, did reply to requests for remark.
A spokesperson for Opportunity Austin, a regional financial development group tasked with luring company investments and jobs to Central Texas, additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The shock pivot by the CEO of Paramount Skydance might be framed as a strategy to cut prices by skirting California’s high taxes, laws and its closely unionized leisure industry workforce, in line with sources briefed on the plans.
“Rob Bonta is trying to kill Hollywood jobs in California while boosting real estate commissions in Texas. If Bonta’s plans were a movie, it would be ‘Dumb and Dumber,’” fumed one insider with direct information of Ellison’s Texas blueprint.
“As for Paramount, they don’t want to leave the state, but they are sort of being kicked out by the Democrats,” the source added.
Twelve state attorneys normal, led by California, filed a lawsuit searching for to dam Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. (Getty Images North America) Getty Images
If Bonta doesn’t conform to settle his antitrust allegations by Oct. 1, Ellison, son of software program giant Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, has reportedly threatened to start the method of transferring out of the Golden State.
Public data show work is already effectively underway on the Austin website, making it a turnkey fortress for any incoming company whale.
Boasting sky-high 36-foot ceilings, 96 dock doorways, and a mammoth 4,000-amp energy provide, the colossal warehouse already packs the megawatt punch that will be needed to energy sprawling Hollywood soundstages.
Filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation dated June 27, 2025, reveal that an initial 25,685-square-foot government touchdown suite is present process a fast inside buildout.
Texas has been working to tempt companies away from higher-tax jurisdictions. Ryan Conine – stock.adobe.com
The project, filed underneath the blind company title “IDI Office,” lists a $350,000 price range and faucets Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture to design the space.
Municipal permits from the City of Austin show specialised contractors have been bustling across the property, performing wide-sweeping energy, plumbing and wiring upgrades.
“There would be three issues,” one Austin business bigwig advised The Post. “What is the financial benefit and footprint in Austin? What are the workforce potentials? And then, what form of state advantages will come out of it?’
The project, if finalized, would hand a huge victory to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who continues to lure leisure productions away from the West Coast with aggressive tax perks and state movie incentive packages.
Austin already boasts a growing studio community anchored by Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios and the Austin Film Society amenities.
