A long-vacant industrial property on East 219th Street in Euclid is slated to become the site of Creative Spaces, a film-studio campus designed to give Northeast Ohio productions something they've lacked for years: a purpose-built soundstage. The Euclid Architectural Review Board approved plans this summer for a high-roofed soundstage and adjacent offices, and the project's founders say they plan to break ground on the first phase this fall.
The campus is the brainchild of James Ingalls, the 28-year-old CEO of Ingalls & Co., and Allan Velez, according to News 5 Cleveland. Both men are Northeast Ohio natives who recently moved back to the region, and a company tied to the Ingalls family bought the 4.32-acre Euclid site in late 2024, per property records cited in that report. The site sits near Interstate 90, about a 15-minute drive east of downtown Cleveland.
Ingalls and Velez are associated with Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, according to Ingalls & Co.'s Creative Spaces page. Ingalls attended film school in Chicago before coming home, the station's report notes. “Films are coming here and we could be getting more,” Ingalls said, according to the same account.
What Stage 01 Will Look Like
The first phase, known as Stage 01, includes a 15,000-square-foot soundstage and an 8,100-square-foot production office, per the station's reporting. Ingalls & Co. describes the stage as a high-roofed soundstage.
Creative Spaces has a master plan and engineering documents, according to Ingalls & Co. The project team is still navigating Euclid's permitting process, the same source notes, and Ingalls has said the team has people lined up to build phase one. Beyond Stage 01, Creative Spaces ultimately envisions more soundstages, a workshop and a production-design warehouse, per the station's account.
Financing the Build
Creative Spaces carries an initial budget of about $2.5 million, the report states. Ingalls & Co. is seeking financing for the broader development. Ingalls and Velez are actively fundraising for the project, the station reports, and filmmakers and investors have discussed building a ground-up studio campus in or near Cleveland for years.
Why Ohio Keeps Losing Interior Scenes
The gap Creative Spaces hopes to fill was on display during production of James Gunn's 2025 movie Superman, which spent an estimated $80 million in Ohio during six weeks of exterior location shooting in Cleveland and Cincinnati. Atlanta was used for soundstage work on the film, according to James Gunn. Northeast Ohio regularly lands high-profile exterior shoots, but the absence of large soundstages has historically pushed interior work out of state.
Euclid Mayor Kirsten Gail said the Creative Spaces site could bring jobs, tax revenues and new energy to the area, per the station's reporting. Bill Garvey, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, said the region's ultimate goal is to become the next epicenter of production. In 2024, film and television productions brought to Northeast Ohio by the film commission generated $77.8 million in direct local spending, hired 2,936 local crew members, booked more than 25,000 hotel room nights, and engaged more than 400 local vendors, the commission reports. The commission also secured $256.5 million in combined booked production budgets for projects scheduled to shoot across Northeast Ohio during the 2024-2025 cycle.
State Incentives Backing the Buildout
Ohio has offered a Motion Picture Tax Credit program since 2009, and the state has landed more than 300 productions since the program launched, per the station's reporting. Ohio updated the credit under House Bill 33 in 2023, raising the annual funding cap from $40 million to $50 million, which includes a dedicated $5 million annual allocation for Broadway theatrical productions, according to Entertainment Partners. The credit is refundable, according to Entertainment Partners.
In January 2025, the Ohio Department of Development launched a separate Film & Theater Capital Improvements Tax Credit program, awarding $7.3 million in tax credits to regional studio facilities, according to WKYC. That round included $1.24 million for the Cleveland Production Center in Strongsville and $267,000 for Schoolyard Soundstage in Geauga County, the station reported. The capital-improvement incentive covers up to 25% of eligible facility construction or redevelopment expenses, capped at $5 million per project.
Cleveland's film industry already has various stages and a growing footprint, and it has doubled in size over the last decade, according to News 5 Cleveland's report. TRG Multimedia operates a 160,000-square-foot indoor filming space in nearby Brooklyn, Ohio, the outlet notes, giving the region another indoor option even as Creative Spaces moves through permitting. Hoodline has previously reported that since Ohio established its motion picture tax credit program in 2009, film and television productions shot in the state have generated nearly $1.4 billion in gross economic output and created more than 7,100 full-time equivalent jobs.
The region continues to sell itself on tax credits for the local scene, historic architecture, relatively low production costs, easy access and experienced crews, per the station's reporting. Whether Creative Spaces can secure the private capital it's seeking, clear Euclid's remaining permitting steps, and eventually compete for state capital-improvement tax credits will determine how much of that pitch the Euclid campus can help deliver.
