Santa Fe, NM – Aspect Media Village — once pitched as the next big studio hub in Northern New Mexico — is undergoing a dramatic mid-production rewrite.
With the film and TV business in a slowdown and U.S. production volume still struggling to rebound, developer Phillip Gesue and PE Real Estate Holdings have pivoted, transforming the city-owned midtown campus into a fast-growing magnet for tech companies, creatives, and next-gen entrepreneurs. And in a twist even he didn’t expect, the tech sector may become the star of the show.
“There is a big tech component we never knew existed that is coming to Santa Fe,” Gesue said during a recent tour of the campus on St. Michael’s Drive.
From Film Hub to Multi-Industry Village
Aspect Media Village sits on more than 20 acres of what was once the College of Santa Fe and later the Santa Fe University of Art and Design — a sprawling site that has long been central to the city’s redevelopment ambitions. The original plan called for a blend of apartments, restaurants, a movie theater, event space, and film/TV production facilities including 75,000 square feet of soundstages, building on the long-running Garson Studios next door and the newer Midtown Studios.
Much of that vision remains intact. ArtHouse — a 129-unit apartment complex aimed at young workers in tech, film, arts, and hospitality — opens next spring. Deadeye, a boutique post-production and design studio, has already taken space and plans to expand its capabilities.
But with a sharp downturn in large-scale productions nationwide, PE Real Estate Holdings began fielding calls from an unexpected set of tenants: high-growth tech companies.
A Booming Tech Scene Finds a Home
The influx began with two foundational tenants:
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Woodruff Engineering, a specialist in advanced magnets and power supply systems.
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The New Mexico Innovation Hub, offering labs, office space, and incubator services for startups.
Gesue says more tech tenants are lining up — enough to make Aspect Media Village one of the state’s most concentrated innovation clusters.
“There are a lot of those industries, but there’s no cohesiveness,” he said. “Everybody’s operating on their own.”
Aspect Media Village, he argues, can be the opposite — a campus where engineers, designers, filmmakers, musicians, and performers exchange ideas daily. “There’s a huge difference in the information exchange,” he said. “When you’re in this young business and you see somebody every day, there’s this esprit de corps. There’s a sense of community.”
A Neighborhood With a Pulse
To create that ecosystem, Gesue went after specific cultural anchors — a cinema, a destination restaurant, and creative organizations.
“We needed those users,” he said. That includes:
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Sky Cinema, moving into the building formerly occupied by The Screen and opening in January with two auditoriums, a bar, café, and event center.
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Tender Fire Kitchen, the first brick-and-mortar home for chef Ben Crosky’s celebrated pizzeria, opening in mid-December with a full team already hired.
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Wise Fool New Mexico, the beloved circus arts school and performance troupe that has become an early cultural anchor.
