Movie soundstage campus wins Euclid design approval, with fall construction planned on vacant industrial site

The single-family homes directly across East 219th Street from the old Linderme Tube Co. property have spent years looking at an empty industrial lot. The copper-and-aluminum tubing plant that anchored the block went dark by 2008 after roughly 81 years, and the parcel at roughly 1450 E. 219th St., just north of Euclid Avenue between Chardon Avenue and East 222nd Street, has sat with little more than a railroad spur on it. That is the site where a movie soundstage and production campus has now won Euclid design approval, and where its developers say phase-one construction is targeted to begin this fall.

Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail said the site has been languishing for generations, and she pointed to the project's potential for "jobs, tax revenues — and a different sort of energy" in that part of the city. The property sits near Interstate 90, about a 15-minute drive east of downtown Cleveland, with Norfolk Southern's bulk transfer rail yard and mainline to the north.

The campus

The project is led by James Ingalls, co-founder of Ingalls & Co. and co-developer of Creative Spaces, and his business partner Allan Velez — two Northeast Ohio natives who recently moved back to the region. A company tied to Ingalls' family bought the 4.32-acre site in late 2024.

Phase one calls for a 15,000-square-foot high-roof soundstage and an 8,100-square-foot production office, with an initial budget of about $2.5 million; the overall project has been described as a $5 million campus. The first-phase stage is planned to be 38 feet tall, with drive-in access and 400-amp company switches, sized to host everything from major studio productions to smaller local shoots.

The longer-term vision expands the campus to include an on-site mill workshop, a production-design warehouse, and a total of four soundstages of about 14,160 square feet each.

Ingalls & Co. says the campus is meant to serve major productions, local filmmakers, and students, and it has built a Preferred Vendors Network to connect productions with Cleveland-area service providers. "We'd be looking to host movies like 'Superman,' but if a kid has $50 and we have a gap in our schedule, we'll be like, 'Come on in,'" Ingalls said.

The city's sign-off

Euclid's Architectural Review Board approved the Creative Spaces plans earlier this summer, and the team is now moving through the city's permitting process.

Euclid zoning commissioner J. Scott Muscatello said a preliminary analysis found the proposed studio use fit "perfectly" in the U6-Industrial and Manufacturing District, so the project is advancing as compatible with existing zoning rather than requiring a rezoning. The developers told the city the facility would be quiet, sound-proofed, self-contained, and visually pleasing and would not be materially detrimental to nearby property owners.

Even as the fall target stands, Ingalls and Velez are still fundraising for the project, and Ingalls & Co. says it is not yet accepting production inquiries because construction timelines cannot be guaranteed before final city approvals. The company describes Stage 01 as in active development, with schematics and construction documents completed and the team pursuing final permits before construction begins. "We have people lined up to get phase one built," Ingalls said, adding, "But, obviously, these kinds of things take a lot of money."

Holzheimer Gail, in her third and final term as mayor, said the project adds something exciting to the community. "When you think about entertainment and you think about movie production, it adds something exciting to the community," she said. "We're thrilled to welcome that to the city. We're thrilled to see a property get new life and really see the investment here."

Who gets the work

The developers' stated near-term goal is to get phase one built, with a longer-term aim of building a local crew pipeline.

"It's great when stars come to Cleveland and you see that on the news, but what's lost is there's thousands of jobs behind the camera," said Bill Garvey, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

Ingalls & Co. says it is deeply committed to local workforce development and educational partnerships, saying this ensures Cleveland talent competes at the highest levels. But for the people who live on the streets around the site, there is no hiring plan on the table yet. No careers page, no open-position listings, no formal training program, and no named local-hiring partner have been attached to the Euclid project; the company's stated near-term emphasis is on vendor relationships and advancing the facility toward construction. No local-hiring condition has been attached to the deal, and the company has not published a single job figure for it.

Ohio's Motion Picture Tax Credit provides a 30% refundable tax credit for eligible productions spending at least $300,000 in the state, and can apply to in-state expenditures and cast and crew wages. That is a state incentive. Euclid has its own tool — a Community Reinvestment Area tax-abatement program — and it has not been attached to this deal. No tax abatement or Community Reinvestment Area agreement has been attached to the Creative Spaces approval. That is the tax-dollar test for the people who absorbed the vacancy.

For the neighbors who lived with the vacancy, the open questions are whether the construction jobs, the permanent jobs, and the revived tax base will land in the hands of Euclid residents. The final permits, the fall groundbreaking, and any commitment the city or developers make on local hiring and tax terms are the things to watch as phase one actually moves forward.