Qualla: ACX1 Studios

ACX1 Studios: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Larry Hachucka, CC BY-SA 4.0. Captain John L. Young announced in 1906 that he was going to build a pier in Atlantic City that would cost a million dollars - in a year when a million dollars built about half of the buildings in town. The pier opened that July as Young's Million Dollar Pier, 1,900 feet long, with what was claimed to be the world's largest ballroom, a 4,000-seat Hippodrome Theatre, an aquarium, an exhibit hall built like a Greek temple, and a roller-skating rink. Young built himself a private mansion at the ocean end of the pier in 1908 and gave it the address No. 1 Atlantic Ocean - the only address he ever needed. The pier has now been five different things. ACX1 Studios is the latest version, a film production complex that opened in 2023 with the stated goal of turning Atlantic City into the Hollywood of the East.

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Image: Larry Hachucka | CC BY-SA 4.0

ACX1 Studios: Captain Young's Pier

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hij802, CC BY-SA 4.0. Young was an Atlantic City showman who had been running ocean piers since 1891. The Million Dollar Pier was meant to be his masterpiece - a permanent stage for the kind of mass entertainment that was making Atlantic City the most visited resort city in America. Through the 1910s ...

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Image: Hij802 | CC BY-SA 4.0

ACX1 Studios: Hamid, Donna, and Decline

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Larry Hachucka, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the original ownership went bankrupt in 1936, the circus impresario George Hamid took over operations in 1938 and modernized the pier as Hamid's Million Dollar Pier. He bought the rival Steel Pier in 1945 and kept the Million Dollar running through 1948. The pier passed thr...

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Image: Larry Hachucka | CC BY-SA 4.0

ACX1 Studios: Ocean One, the Ocean Liner

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Copn. H. Smith Co., Public domain. What replaced the Million Dollar Pier in 1983 was architecturally peculiar even by Atlantic City standards. Ocean One was a three-story, $40 million shopping mall built to look like an ocean liner - portholes around the perimeter, masts on the roof, employees in sailor suits. The...

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Image: Copn. H. Smith Co. | Public domain

ACX1 Studios: The Pier Shops at Caesars

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit B64 (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The 2006 reopening as The Pier Shops at Caesars represented the pier's pivot from mass-market mall to high-end luxury shopping. Tourneau, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Armani Exchange, Tommy Bahama, and the Apple Store all signed leases. A second-floor skybridge connected the pier direct...

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Image: B64 (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

ACX1 Studios: Hollywood of the East

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Larry Hachucka, CC BY-SA 4.0. On September 14, 2023, the pier reopened again - this time as ACX1 Studios, a 550,000-square-foot facility positioned as a film and television production studio, music incubator, and entertainment venue. The economics depend largely on New Jersey's film and digital media tax cred...

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Image: Larry Hachucka | CC BY-SA 4.0