Cinespace sold to buyout firm in deal reportedly worth $1 billion

Cinespace Chicago Film Studio campus in North Lawndale. The studio was acquired by TPG Real Estate in a deal announced Friday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

A former Netflix executive will become a top official at the South Side studio home to “Chicago Fire” and other TV and film productions.

Cinespace, the studio that is home to Chicago-based film and TV productions including “Chicago Fire,” has been sold to the real estate arm of TPG, a buyout firm based in Texas and California, the two companies announced Friday.

The deal, valued at $1 billion according to Crain’s Chicago Business, means the Pissios family of Chicago will no longer control the studio space they founded in 2010 with the aid of millions of dollars in state grants. The deal also involves studio space owned by Cinespace in Toronto.

A press release from TPG says former Netflix executive Eoin Egan will take over as a co-managing partner and COO. Keith Gee, of LifeStorage, will become another co-managing partner and CFO. The release does not mention any role for Cinespace President and CEO Alex Pissios, whose run as the head of Cinespace’s Chicago operation has seen the company expand into the city’s premier studio space and purportedly the largest film campus east of California.

As a Cinespace executive, Pissios also wore a wire on former Teamsters boss John Coli Jr., who pleaded guilty to extorting more than $300,000 from Cinespace to maintain labor peace at the studio. Pissios’ cooperation earned him a non-prosecution deal with federal prosecutors for fraud charges tied to his 2011 personal bankruptcy.

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