COVINGTON, Ga. - The future for the film and entertainment industry in Covington is getting a little bigger with the introduction of the Covington Entertainment Media Campus.

What started with Three Ring Studios, at 160 acres, will turn into a bigger project totaling 350 acres, Vice President of Economic Development for Covington/Newton County Economic Development David Bernd told The Covington News.

“It would take us from 160 acres – which is roughly Three Ring – to 350 acres, which would be likely the largest media campus in the world,” he said.

Bernd said the economic development office is in the process of working land options with 28 property owners right now to acquire the expansion property.

“They already see that their property values are going to go way up, which is good, but it’s also bad because it means that their taxes are going to go way up,” he said.

Right now, Three Ring Studios is expected to have a complete build out sometime between 2020 and 2022.

“There’s a lot of pressure to build out quicker, but quite honestly making sure that we have everything right is probably more important than building out quickly,” Bernd said.

A proposed layout has been drafted for the expansion property, but it could change depending on the investors. Three Ring Studios will be given the first opportunity at the expansion land before it is opened up to others.

“Actually, Three Ring was pretty excited about this because they were with us when we were in Los Angeles and they saw the same thing that you can get land-locked really quickly and you see the amount on the property that is being bought up around Three Ring right now,” he said.