SAN MARCOS, Texas – The development timeline for a massive 820,000-square-foot movie studio outside San Marcos remains muddled, as pictures taken of the site by KSAT show an empty lot nearly six months out from its projected completion date.
Hill Country Studios, a 12-stage production lot, was supposed to break ground in April 2023 and occupy about part of a 200-acre plot near the La Cima neighborhood outside of San Marcos, according to multiple reports and a City of San Marcos page detailing the project.
In 2022, San Marcos City Council approved a five-year tax incentive deal with Hill Country Group LLC.
The site was slated to open in August 2025, according to city council documents.
A timeline shift with no visible changes
In mid-January, KSAT contacted Jacob Cowan, chief marketing officer at Hill County Studios, to address questions about the project’s timeline.
Cowan, in an email to KSAT, said while “significant preliminary site work” had occurred, “it’s important to note that the initial timeline you referenced has shifted due to a variety of factors.”
Cowan then vaguely described “an external utility issue critical to the next phase of development” and said providing a firm updated timeline would be difficult.
“We remain committed to progressing the project as efficiently as possible and will provide further updates as we continue to move forward,” Cowan said in his email.
For over a month, Cowan did not respond to KSAT’s inquiries about what specific site work had prolonged the project despite repeated, unanswered emails and phone calls.
He answered our sixth email on Friday, Feb. 14, and detailed the work so far.
“As we have previously stated, the work completed to date has been preliminary in nature. This includes necessary pre-construction activities such as geological / ecological studies, removal of pre-existing structures, and addressing abandoned pipelines. While these steps are critical to development, they have not necessarily resulted in visible changes to our site,” Cowan said.
Cowan again said that “a utility issue beyond our control has impacted the overall construction schedule,” thereby preventing the team from providing an updated timeline on dirt work and vertical construction.
He did not elaborate further on what specifically was being affected.
The interactive image below shows a top-down Google Maps image of the land in 2025 compared to Hill Country Studios' 2022 concepts.
What was to come...last year
The timeline Cowan referenced in his first response to KSAT dealt with initial plans by the studio to open a portion of the project in late 2024, according to a FAQ page the City of San Marcos created detailing the project.
This first phase was to include:
- Seven production stages
- Two workshops
- A welcome center
- A second part of phase one was to also include 250,000 square feet of office space
A second phase proposed to add five stages, two more workshops and support space.
Meanwhile, a trio of listings on the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation page show three portions of the project were set to be completed last year. Those filings and their timelines are below:
- Workshop A: The start date was Aug. 1, 2023, with completion on April 2, 2024; the estimated cost is $9 million.
- Stages 3 and 4: The start date was Aug. 1, 2023, with completion on Aug. 1, 2024; the estimated cost is $18 million.
- Stages 6 and 7: The start date was Feb. 4, 2024, with completion on Aug. 15, 2024; the estimated cost is $20 million.
The facility was expected to be completed sometime in August 2025, according to the page.
You can view the page below.
Despite the City of San Marcos displaying its crest on pages discussing the project, a communications specialist with the city declined to comment as it was not a city project.
“The StoryMap was originally created as an FAQ when the project was under consideration for incentives,” they said.
Hill Country Studios is listed as one of two projects on a city development website.
A bumpy start
Hill County Studios garnered some negative attention from community members in San Marcos after it was announced the project would be developed on top of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.
The University Star, Texas State’s student newspaper, reported that construction over the recharge zone could potentially increase pollutants in the aquifer.
However, a conservationist with the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan said the land that Hill Country Studios would occupy had been zoned for commercial property in 2013, the Star reported.
Demonstrations from opponents of the project in 2022 came after San Marcos City Council approved tax incentives over five years in the form of a Chapter 380 Economic Development Agreement with Hill Country Group LLC.
Over those five years, the agreement would provide tax rebates, beginning in 2025, decreasing by 20% every year.
While the agreement would take effect upon completion of construction, it is unclear where this stands as there is no visible construction at the site less than eight months away from its proposed completion.
San Marcos, according to the council presentation, is expected to retain $11.4 million in property taxes over 10 years from the project’s buildout. This date, considered the first year, is 2025.
A 249% return on property tax incentive is expected, according to the presentation.
As part of environmental regulations around the project, Hill Country Group is required to develop a water pollution abatement plan and stormwater pollution prevention plan while adhering to strict impervious cover rules before construction commences.
Impervious cover pertains to any human-made surface that does not absorb rainfall. According to the City of San Marcos council presentation, lower impervious cover in this context means:
- Less runoff
- Less pollutant loading
- More infiltration
- More recharge
Other environmental measures include onsite planting of native trees, vehicle charging stations and a community bicycle program, according to the FAQ page.
The site is expected to bring 44 full-time employees and employ up to 1,400 additional contract workers. The full-time employees are expected to earn an average $100,000 salary, while the contract workers will earn $80,000, respectively.
KSAT also emailed Zach Price and Cory McLoud, co-founders of Hill Country Studios, but neither responded to our inquiries.
However, in an email thread sent to KSAT, Texas State University officials confirmed “multiple conversations” had occurred between the studios and the university.
“When we’ve met, we talked about how we might prepare our students for deeper involvement in what they will be doing,” said Johnny McAllister, associate professor and head of the film program at Texas State.
‘The opportunities are limitless’
The site of Hill Country Studios, by car, is five minutes from Texas State and about an hour from the University of Texas at San Antonio, two universities whose respective film programs could certainly benefit from the space.
A studio lot this size could yield positive results for the state, especially as lawmakers will likely make incentivizing and building out the film industry a focus during the 89th Texas Legislature.
Last month, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced the first round of his priority bills for the session, including a Senate Bill to establish Texas as “America’s film capital.”
Media pushes from celebrities and concerted efforts toward lawmakers hope to see Texas' existing incentives package bolstered even more.
During the last legislative session, lawmakers pumped $200 million into state incentives for film and video game developers to receive tax exemptions on projects through the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.
For prospective filmmakers in Texas, the studio could even support engagement from budding film students at several universities from San Antonio to Austin, said Paul Ardoin, director of the film and media program at UTSA.
“The San Antonio - San Marcos - Austin corridor is well-positioned to support film industry growth, especially with the development of new programs and new talent at both Texas State San Marcos and University of Texas at San Antonio,” Ardoin said in an email to KSAT.
Similarly, McAllister said the studio could “provide transformative opportunities for student filmmakers.”
“They would essentially be starting their careers before they graduate and building connections that will serve them throughout their careers,” McAllister said. “Finally, they might even be able to shoot their final projects on professional grade soundstages using that technology. The opportunities are limitless.”
Inking deals in the interim
Despite a muddled construction timeline, Hill Country Studios’ team has stayed busy inking partnerships for the future.
Last November, Deadline reported the studio was partnering with Generator Entertainment, an entertainment company backed by screenwriter Chris Collins, whose credits include “Sons of Anarchy” and “John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum,” and others.
Through the partnership, Hill Country Studios would assist in the ongoing development and financing of Generator’s upcoming productions, two of which are expected to shoot at the studio in late 2025, according to Deadline.
The partnership aims to shoot mid-budget — the five to $20 million range, to be exact — action, science-fiction and horror projects, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Officials with Generator Entertainment did not respond to an email seeking comments for this story. It remains unclear where their two forthcoming projects will be filmed.
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