Who wants to buy a movie studio? Utah Film Studios has been put on the market by its ownership group, Quinn Capital Partners, less than two years after they acquired the property as part of a lawsuit settlement in 2017. The property is listed for sale without an asking price, but for those of you reading this, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
The studio casts a hulking silhouette over Park City’s eastern entrance in Quinn’s Junction. Its muddled development history left many Parkites wondering just what was going on behind those walls, but after the purchase and a name change to Utah Film Studios the operation seemed to be on stable ground. Utah Film Studios even appeared to become the epicenter of a rejuvenated Utah television and film development movement by serving as the studio location for Kevin Costner’s hit show “Yellowstone” and Ari Aster’s Sundance darling “Hereditary” among other projects. Alas, it appears as if the studio’s future is once again uncertain.
The property currently contains 90,000 square feet of developed space, including 45,000 square feet of state-of-the-art sound stages and 25,000 square feet of additional production space and offices. The listing, however, includes the entire property, which the City has approved for 374,000 square feet of development. With less than a quarter of available development completed, the Utah Film Studios property holds a lot more value to potential buyers than just the existing production space. The initial approval foresaw a hotel and film school among other ideas, but what the space will ultimately look like is anyone’s guess.
Longtime critics of the studio’s viability will likely take the news as a sign their predictions were accurate, but it’s unclear if the current ownership group ever planned to pursue additional development themselves or if a sale was always their next move. A sale of this magnitude likely won’t be complete before the end of 2019, but we will update the story as developments occur.
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