Montevideo will have, in the medium term, a new industrial park located on the land of Zonamerica on Route 102, which will include an audiovisual campus with three studios for filming motion pictures. The project already has the approval of the municipal government, and is now awaiting new authorizations.
The industrial park where the audiovisual campus will be installed will aim to accommodate different industries with innovative and growing characteristics: clean industries (cleantech), life sciences (pharma and biotech), agritech, foodtech, creative industries and technological.
The total estimated investment is 60 million dollars, with an 8-year development plan. The first stage is the audiovisual campus on three hectares, which will have a total investment of 17.2 million dollars.
“This is a first step, which implies the path towards the viability and development of the park,” said the CEO of Zonamerica, Martin Dovatto Ambit. The executive added that the park “will join a network of actors that are already part of the metropolitan area and that seek to offer a new value proposition to help different clean and innovative industries grow.”
Dovat indicated that there are approximately 60,000 m2 of construction and promised to continue working together with the Municipality of Montevideo and other organizations for its realization. It is estimated that the project can generate about 800 direct jobs and about 180 more for each film studio.
“The Industrial Park is a Zonamerica project. We are working on the Audiovisual Campus, as a development and growth plan for Reducto, convinced that it would be necessary to have a studio, hopefully several, of larger dimensions to be able to consolidate the production of films and series in Uruguay“, he explained to this medium Maria Giorello of Redoubtaudiovisual space that will be part of the project.
“The idea is aimed at international projects, but also as a stimulus and impulse to promote all national production and co-productions. “It is a medium and long-term project, it is still super incipient,” he added.
For its part, another of the investors will be Musitelli Film and its director Ernesto Musitelli expressed that the initiative aims to develop more infrastructure for audiovisual production since currently in Uruguay The number of studies “is insufficient.” This project could double or triple production, he added.
From the financial point of view, the corporate finance firm also participates. Eastern Capital.
The rise of the audiovisual sector in Uruguay
The audiovisual industry in Uruguay It is in total growth. It went from having 24 weeks of filming for content in 2019 to 142 in 2021, stabilizing at 90 weeks by 2022 and there were more than 100 in 2023. More than 500 companies work on it, the majority in production and post-production.
There are 1,500 professionals linked to production and post-production activities and another 1,500 dedicated to providing services and equipment, distribution and exhibition. Currently 3,000 students study communication, film and audiovisual degrees.
Source: Ambito
