Paramount CEO David Ellison eyes Austin as potential new base after threatening to ditch California during antitrust battle

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Key points

• Filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation dated June 27, 2025, reveal that an initial 25, 685-square-foot executive landing suite is undergoing a rapid interior buildout.
• Located at 9219 Old Manor Road, the sprawling industrial park's crown jewel is Building 4, a 415, 000-square-foot cross-dock mega facility.
• The project, filed under the blind corporate title "IDI Office, " lists a $350, 000 budget and taps Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture to design the space.
• The 43-year-old media mogul – facing heat from California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his intends to merge Paramount with Warner Bros.
• As an antitrust battle threatens his Hollywood empire, Paramount boss David Ellison is eyeing a new base in Austin, Texas, The Post has learned.

For context, the 43-year-old media mogul – facing heat from California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his intends to merge Paramount with Warner Bros. Discovery in a $110 billion mega accord – is actively evaluating a prospective movie and TV studio in the Texas capital, according to three residents familiar with the matter.

While Paramount has not formally committed to the intends, sources stated the entertainment giant and its partners are in advanced negotiations and zeroing in on the Bluebonnet Business Center – a hulking commercial development in the east of the city – as a primary target.

By comparison, Paramount's legendary lot in Los Angeles – whose soundstages have produced iconic films including "Rear Window, " "The Godfather, " "Grease" and "Forrest Gump" – spans regarding 360, 000 square feet.

Warner Bros. – home of legendary films from "Casablanca" to "Blade Runner" – operates dozens of soundstages throughout LA with a combined footage of almost 1 million square feet. A Paramount spokesperson declined to comment.

Representatives for Hines, the property's developer, and Aquila Commercial, the main broker, did respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Opportunity Austin, a regional economic development group tasked with luring corporate investments and jobs to Central Texas, additionally did not respond to a request for comment.

As sources indicate briefed on the intends, the surprise pivot by the CEO of Paramount Skydance could be framed as a strategy to cut costs by skirting California's high taxes, regulations and its heavily unionized entertainment industry workforce.

"Rob Bonta is trying to kill Hollywood jobs in California while boosting real estate commissions in Texas. If Bonta's intends were a movie, it would be 'Dumb and Dumber, '" fumed one insider with direct knowledge of Ellison's Texas blueprint.

"As for Paramount, they don't want to leave the state, but they are sort of being kicked out by the Democrats, " the source continued.

If Bonta does not agree to settle his antitrust allegations by Oct. 1, Ellison, son of software giant Oracle's billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, has reportedly threatened to commence the process of moving out of the Golden State.

Public records show work is already well underway at the Austin site, making it a turnkey fortress for any incoming corporate whale.

Boasting sky-high 36-foot ceilings, 96 dock doors, and a mammoth 4, 000-amp power supply, the colossal warehouse already packs the megawatt punch that would be needed to power sprawling Hollywood soundstages.

Notably, the project, filed under the blind corporate title "IDI Office, " lists a $350, 000 budget and taps Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture to design the space.

Municipal permits from the City of Austin show specialized contractors have been bustling around the property, performing wide-sweeping power, plumbing and wiring upgrades.

There would be three issues, one Austin business bigwig informed The Post. What is the economic benefit and footprint in Austin? What are the workforce potentials? And then, what kind of state benefits will come out of it?'

In practice, the project, if finalized, would hand a massive victory to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who continues to lure entertainment productions away from the West Coast with aggressive tax perks and state film incentive packages.

Austin already boasts a growing studio network anchored by Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios and the Austin Film Society facilities.

Taken together, the developments around paramount CEO David Ellison eyes Austin as potential new base after threatening point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.