An aerial view of Stages 9, 11 and the mill at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company, according to the state, has made just north of $100 million in capital investment into the expansion.
Stages 11 and 12 at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company's CEO, Ted Sarandos, said the two-story stages will be a big boost for productions being filmed on the campus.
An inside view of the geothermal power room at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company uses geothermal technology to power heating and cooling of the buildings on the campus.
An aerial view of Stages 9, 11 and the mill at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company, according to the state, has made just north of $100 million in capital investment into the expansion.
Campbell Bishop via Netflix
Stages 11 and 12 at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company's CEO, Ted Sarandos, said the two-story stages will be a big boost for productions being filmed on the campus.
Campbell Bishop via Netflix
An inside view of the geothermal power room at Netflix Albuquerque Studios. The company uses geothermal technology to power heating and cooling of the buildings on the campus.
ALBUQUERQUE — Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recalls coming to New Mexico quite often in years past when he was a video distributor on the West Coast, remembering a time in the 1990s when the company he worked for had sponsored a balloon race here.
Fast forward a few decades later; Sarandos and his team at Netflix saw a different kind of high-flying opportunity for the company in New Mexico.
“I’ve seen the fits and starts of a production where people get very excited that New Mexico could be the next Hollywood. The truth of it is, generally, production comes in [and] shoots, picks up everything they brought and takes it home. That’s not great,” Sarandos told The New Mexican. “When I talked to the governor about this project, I said, ‘Hold our feet to the fire to invest in New Mexico. We will build permanent infrastructure, we will build training programs to increase the crew population, and then we can be real partners in building out this facility.'”
That project, located in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol, is well underway to becoming a regional hot spot for film production for the streaming company, which last week unveiled the completion of the first phase of what is expected to be a continually evolving campus.
Called Netflix Studios Albuquerque, the completion of the 108-acre project marks a major achievement for the company. Netflix in 2018 purchased for $30 million what was formerly Albuquerque Studios, which sat on 28 acres and included about eight soundstages. In the years since, the company has created a massive sprawl that consists of a dozen soundstages, three mills, a production office, two stage-support buildings and two dedicated backlot areas.
While the company didn’t say what it had invested in the expansion, it has to date put up nearly $575 million in productions filmed in the state since 2019 — and nearly $900 million when factoring in other productions that have utilized Netflix Studios Albuquerque.
Bruce Krasnow, a spokesman for the New Mexico Economic Development Department, said the company has so far made about $100 million in capital investments in the expansion, with Netflix promising to deliver up to $150 million.
He added the state has so far invested about $19.5 million in Local Economic Development Act funds to Netflix. That money typically is used to help grow a company’s presence in New Mexico. The city of Albuquerque has contributed about $4 million, and there’s still room for about $3.5 million to be dispersed based on previous agreements, which will be doled out “when they reach specified economic development benchmarks,” Krasnow wrote in an email.
Netflix is still looking to build out into the future — and the company has the ability to fill out the 325 acres of land it controls in the area. Officials declined to comment on what the hub could look like, but Sarandos referred to it as an “ongoing expansion.”
The purchase of the former Albuquerque Studios marked the first Netflix acquisition of a production studio complex. The campus now includes two-story stages — something you can’t even find in the film capital of the U.S., Sandaros said — which makes the facility even more important for the company’s plans in production going forward.
“In Los Angeles, the only two-story stage that existed in Los Angeles was at Universal Studios,” he said, noting “it was recently torn down to expand the theme park.”
The company also has invested in sustainability at the Albuquerque hub and will continue to do so. According to Netflix officials, that includes 50 electric vehicle fast chargers, including DC fast chargers, on-site solar and battery storage systems, and geothermal heating and cooling.
Alyssa Nelson, senior manager of operations and development for studio management at Netflix, said the implementation of geothermal technology at Netflix Studios makes the Albuquerque campus “the first studio in the world” to do so.
The expansion for Netflix also saw the company utilize local firms, including Dekker Perich Sabatini, the Albuquerque-based architecture firm, for the design. New York-based J.T. Megan was the general contractor. The company said it took about 2,800 workers to complete the first phase of the expansion.
For state officials, Netflix Studios Albuquerque reflects the state’s growing film economy — one they see as a cornerstone to continued success for the state.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — who was in attendance for the unveiling of the campus, along with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján — called the expansion a “big deal.”
“It shows unequivocally [that] if we [are] determined to lead and we are accepting the kinds of partners that want to do right by New Mexico, that see our potential, that will bring their own money to the table and talent, we’ll do the same,” she said.
