New Jersey’s production boom is adding another major player.
Alan Mruvka, co-founder of E! Entertainment Television, is investing more than $250 million to transform a landmark former silk mill in Paterson, N.J., into a next-generation digital production campus spanning approximately 250,000 square feet.
The project, dubbed Filmology Labs Studios: Content Creation Studios, will be housed in the historic Reinhardt Building at 51 State St. — a property that dates back to Paterson’s 19th-century heyday as America’s “Silk City.” Now commonly known as the Padded Wagon Building, the site is being repositioned as a vertically integrated hub for short-form, creator-driven and AI-enabled media.
Filmology Labs will serve as the home base for Mruvka’s newly launched vertical micro-drama platform, Verza TV, which plans to produce more than two series per month. The studio will also accommodate outside production companies, micro-drama producers and independent creators.
Micro-dramas — typically one- to three-minute episodes designed for vertical smartphone viewing — have emerged as one of the fastest-growing digital content formats. Filmology Labs is being purpose-built to streamline that model, with 21 soundstages featuring fully lit, permanent standing sets optimized for vertical storytelling.
According to the company, the prebuilt environments are designed to eliminate traditional costs associated with set design, construction and lighting, allowing projects to be produced at scale and at speed.
The campus will also include AI-focused production spaces, podcast studios, a green-screen stage and an LED volume wall stage employing technology similar to that used on The Mandalorian. Additional amenities include creative office space, a commissary serving up to 200 people, and fitness and yoga facilities.
Located roughly 20 minutes from Manhattan via Interstate 80, Filmology Labs will also leverage New Jersey’s competitive film and digital media tax credits — incentives that have helped position the state as a major East Coast production hub. Under Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, the Garden State has aggressively courted film and TV investment, landing projects such as Netflix’s planned $1 billion studio complex at Fort Monmouth and Lionsgate’s Newark facility.
“Paterson is one of the most extraordinary cities in New Jersey and a vibrant community,” Mruvka said in a statement. “Our goal is to engage local schools to help train young people for careers in this fast-growing industry, while drawing investment into Paterson and showcasing the city to the world. Filmology Labs is about creating opportunity — creatively, economically, and culturally.”
Paterson Mayor André Sayegh echoed that sentiment, noting the project’s potential to generate jobs and accelerate the city’s revitalization.
The facility, first reported by Variety, was designed by architect Conrad Roncati of Architectura, blending preserved industrial architecture with contemporary production infrastructure.
As vertical storytelling and AI-driven formats continue to reshape content economics, Filmology Labs represents the latest bet that New Jersey’s studio expansion is far from over.
