Movie Biz: Tyler Perry's "Jumbo-Size" Atlanta Studio Complex

Tyler Perry's movie studio sprawls across 330 acres just 10 minutes south of Downtown Atlanta. It has its own green spaces, some 150K SF of office space, its own internet fiber ring, a diner, a 30-acre historic district with more than three dozen nationally recognized historic buildings and soundstage rafters sturdy enough to hang a Boeing 747 on. 

The creator behind such cinema outings as "Why Did I Get Married?" "Boo! A Madea Halloween" and the upcoming "Acrimony," and television shows "Love Thy Neighbor," "The Haves and the Have Nots" and "The Paynes" purchased a chunk of a former U.S. Army base named Fort McPherson for $35M in 2015, transforming its varied backdrops into scenes for film production.

It was a Hollywood ending to a story of a South Atlanta community that was facing the prospects of losing thousands of active duty and civilian employees when the military shuttered the former Army base in 2011. 

Fort McPherson and nearby Fort Gillem were both part of a planned 2005 base realignment that targeted them for closure six years later. Since Perry purchased the property, his studio has brought hundreds of employees back to the area, and revitalized nearby businesses and has given area economic developers business leads, Fort Mac LRA Executive Director Brian Hooker told Georgia Trend magazine earlier this year. 

Fort Mac LRA is the organization attempting to redevelop the portions of the former military base not owned by Perry. "Folks want to lease space on our side of the property or be part of our development so they can service the film studio," he told the magazine