Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Millsap.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m a person full of curiosity with a hunger for adventure, so it was pretty easy for me to assess that corporate America wasn’t going to be the best option for the speed, agility, and turn on a dime flexibility that I longed for in my career life. I’m truly wired more as an activist value investor than simply an entrepreneur, but my various investment theses over the years have required a lot of entrepreneurial engagement to execute the investments. Even though I’ve made a about 50 investments in different businesses and real estate projects/developments, I’ve really only made three major, theme based investment decisions in my life – but each required starting a company. The first was a concrete recycling company. I was 26 and I was on the lookout for an opportunity. When I learned about concrete recycling and then researched it in earnest, I discovered how connected it is to road infrastructure and how early in its universal adoption it was at the time. And the economics were and are fantastic. So the thesis was simple: great economics in a growing business where the returns on investment were very large and the risk to capital very small. So it made sense to me and I decided to start one. That story is long, but in the end, I sold the entitled recycling land to other concrete recycling operators, made a nice profit, and that was my entry into commercial real estate investing.
My next major investment thesis was born out of the economic collapse that followed the failure of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stevens, AIG and all of that mess that was 2008-2009. The thesis was simple: apartment rents had been decimated and it resulted in a lot of projects that didn’t work at their original capitalizations underwritten on optimistic assumptions about the future that had in 2008-2009 proved in achievable. But what often happens in commercial real estate is that the assumptions of the original developer/investor were not wrong ultimately, they were just not right in time. And it’s in time that investments are proven profitable or a loss. So it’s often running out of time that makes an investment fail. The thesis was wrong in the short run and proved right with more time. But when Lehman failed the second major investment thesis that I followed emerged: failed investments in apartments were not failed apartments, they were simply lost money by paying too much for a good asset. So I set out to not pay too much for a good asset and bought about 8,000 apartments in the southeast with Atlanta as the center. That turned out to be a great thesis as apartment operations have been in a golden age of rents rising and occupancies being full. It’s hard for me to buy many apartments today, but during the last downturn capital could be placed in apartments with very little capital risk, great near term cash flow, and huge upside potential on top of that. I don’t like for the future to have to be different from the present for my investments to make money. That feels like a bad decision. I want to make money under the present circumstances and I don’t want to pay for the uncertainty that is the future.
My last major investment thesis is our current one: the movie business in Atlanta. It’s a good business if you are in the right location and know the right people. It’s a people business – the producers have 9-12 months to get a movie from start to finish, so everything in their business lives needs to go right during that time. So they need capital partners and facilities that make their lives easy and help them to make their movie on time and on budget. And there was a great window of opportunity to build a scaled movie making facility inside the perimeter back when we started this project. And so we did it. And it’s been incredibly successful and we anticipate that success continuing for years to come. But today, in the present moment, we are thriving. International tentpoole movies are being made at Blackhall and we are also starting to make movies with Blackhall capital backing. So Blackhall is currently both a physical production studio and an Entertainment company. The present moment is a golden age for movie making in Georgia and we certainly hope that things will only get better and that the movie industry in Atlanta will prove to be vibrant and lasting for decades to come.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve never heard of an entrepreneurial adventure that was without struggles. Usually the struggles come in the form of two types: money troubles and people troubles. And people includes yourself, because ever investor and entrepreneur is learning with each new investment and each new day of Operations. The future is completely unknowable. All of it is a guess that may prove wrong. So the present moment is unique; there has never been a present moment like the one we are in now, so that means we are all learning on the go, whether we like to acknowledge that fact or not. Investor and entrepreneurs may have a greater awareness of this fact simply because their livelihoods may hang in a balance set in the middle of the village whereas most people may never even get to see the scales that determine their success or failure.
So yes, I’ve had pitfalls. I’ve needed to find money that I didn’t have and needed to replace people who didn’t have what I needed. I’ve been lied to, lied about, and betrayed by people I trusted and loved. I’ve had projects go sideways and need rescuing by greater engineering expertise and additional investments. I’ve had investment partners become enemies and try to raid all of the spoils of the endeavor. I’ve had business partners who couldn’t fulfill their operating and expertise obligations, investors who didn’t show up with money that they contracted to show up with, and experts who didn’t really know much more than the rest of the laymen. I’ve had people try to leverage me with threats. I’ve had people try to leverage me with lies. I’ve had people try to leverage me with the court system. Truly, the worst of humanity comes out when money and power are put in play. I’ve seen a lot and survived a lot. And I imagine there is so much more to come! God willing I’ll get to fight this beautiful entrepreneurial fight for decades to come! And the beautiful people I’ve met along the way make all of the struggle and the ugliness seem like little tiny nothings. The beautiful people are giants.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Blackhall Studios – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Blackhall is a 170 acre facility inside the perimeter. We are about 850,000 sq. ft. under roof with acres of empty backlots for movie making as well. We have been in operations for less than a year but we’ve already had major motion pictures filmed at our facilities. Blackhall was built to accommodate the needs of the most accomplished film makers in the world and our reputation with those film makers is that we are fulfilling that for which we were made. We want to have a reputation for excellence and as that reputation has become real, we want to protect it with all of our might!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We’ll double our size in sound stages next year, so that will be exciting and fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.blackhallstudios.com
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