Once a top Lexington movie theatre, today it’s Kentucky’s biggest production studio
Kentucky’s largest film and production facility is open for business.
LEX Studios, which opened in mid-June, offers several filming studios and more than 50,000 square feet of production space as the venue looks to spearhead efforts to expand Kentucky’s broadcast entertainment footprint nationwide.
The building is part of the Woodhill Shopping Center, off East New Circle Road. It was previously home to movie theater Woodhill Cinema. The cinema closed Sept. 5, 1998 and sat vacant for eight years before reopening as LEX Studios.
“I just saw the enormous potential here,” Lex Studios owner Misdee Wrigley Miller said in an interview. “You don’t have to be on one of the coasts.”
Wrigley Miller is an Arizona native who grew up raising horses with her mother. She had broadcast journalism experience in Arizona, and she moved to Kentucky in 2000 to continue her equestrian farm.
Her career here launched when she was hired by a small Lexington production company called Post Time Productions.
“They hired me to host this documentary,” Wrigley Miller said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, this is great. There’s production going on in Lexington,’ So I asked the owner, Wood Simpson, if he wanted a partner.”
Post Time eventually morphed into Wrigley Media Group, with Simpson as a founder and Wrigley Miller as the owner.
Lexington’s film operation
The media group is involved with several filming operations in Lexington, but its biggest — and the biggest statewide — is LEX Studios.
The massive facility, at 425 Codell Drive, took more than four years to renovate, Wrigley Miller said. Upgrades included removing concrete seat risers from the original movie theaters and adding a second floor that did not previously exist.
“The seat risers were solid poured concrete. All of those had to be demolished in all the theaters, and the soundproofing was two rows of cinder blocks filled with concrete, reinforced with rebar,” Wrigley Miller said. “We tried every kind of machine to knock down the wall, and unfortunately the only thing that worked was putting men with jackhammers on their shoulders on scaffolding.”
Throughout the renovation, Wrigley Miller worked with an expert in building studios and followed advice to make the stages as large as possible.
“I wanted this to be a place where people could come and sit down and be creative together and feel comfortable,” Wrigley Miller said. “Obviously I worked with designers and architects, but this is me.”
From movie theater to TV studio
Early returns are encouraging.
The syndicated reality courtroom TV show “Relative Justice,” of which Wrigley Miller is one of several executive producers, has shot two seasons already at LEX studio, beginning before the renovation was complete, and it’s been picked up for a third season, too.
Wrigley Miller said more than 80 Kentuckians were hired to work on the show during its first two seasons.
“It was very successful for two seasons, and we got picked up for a third season, but I felt that I had accomplished the proof of concept that production can be done in Lexington,” Wrigley Miller said. “So, instead of putting my resources into season three, I devoted those resources to building out these studios.”
LEX Studio officially opened June 20. On the first floor, the building features three sound studios, three green rooms, and three hair and makeup studios. The entire second floor is dedicated to production and office space.
Original parts of Woodhill Cinema remain intact, including concession stands, ticket booths and one theater.
Kentucky offers tax incentives for companies that film in the Bluegrass State — it’s one of more than a dozen states nationwide to offer such tax credits.
The goal for Wrigley Miller and L EX studio’s director, Tim Sabo, is to prove that Central Kentucky can produce full-length feature films, Wrigley Miller said, and spur economic growth along the way.
“There are so many talented people here in Lexington with connections to the entertainment industry,” she said. “Now, they’ll have that opportunity to live in the place they love, and do the job they love.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
