The final beam went up over Stages 3 and 4 on June 23, and Netflix’s $1 billion bet on New Jersey soundstages crossed from sitework into vertical reality. The streamer topped out its first four sound stages at Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, the production campus rising on the former Army base in Monmouth County.
JT Magen keeps the Fort Monmouth studio on schedule
General contractor JT Magen hit the milestone despite one of the worst winters in recent memory, according to the company. The topping-off ceremony brought together Netflix’s enterprise operations lead Kenneth Falcon with JT Magen executive vice president Vincent Ryan and project manager Michael Connaughton, plus the subcontractor crews doing the work.
One number worth noting from the jobsite: the project has diverted roughly 80% of its construction waste, more than 55,000 tons of material, from landfills through recycling and reuse. On a demolition-heavy redevelopment of a decommissioned military base, that’s the difference between a landfill line item and a salvage revenue line.
A $1B production hub on a former Army base
Netflix is converting the shuttered Fort Monmouth into a purpose-built East Coast production hub, its largest facilities investment in the region. The campus plan calls for a dozen sound stages plus support space for production offices, mills and backlot work. For a state that has spent heavily on film tax credits, the project is the physical proof the incentives are pulling anchor tenants, not just location shoots.
The studio buildout joins a wider wave of entertainment-infrastructure construction: Georgia’s Assembly Studios campus recently added the timber-gridshell Bandshell in Doraville, and streamers keep converting content budgets into concrete and steel.
What’s next on the site
With the first four stages topped out, work shifts to enclosure and fit-out while later phases move through the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority’s approvals. Netflix hasn’t committed to a public opening date for first production, though the structural pace suggests stages could be shooting by late 2027.
New Jersey wagered its incentives could out-bid Georgia and the U.K. for a flagship studio campus. As of last week, the bet has a roofline. Details at Netflix and NJBIZ.