Curtain closes on movie studio

Ed Koch and Valerie Miller

Friday, April 21, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

The dream of a Hollywood-type studio in the Southern Nevada desert set sail with promises of fame and fortune for Henderson but has sunk like the Titanic.

The city of Henderson, in an effort to avoid long and costly litigation and immediately recover 86 acres of prime industrial real estate, has agreed to pay developer Doris Keating and her Studio Enterprises, Ltd., $3.2 million to settle her lawsuit against the city.

Keating was to have developed 20 acres into the proposed $200 million Black Mountain Studios, but failed to meet city-imposed deadlines. She also had planned to develop the other 66 acres of the Wagon Wheel Industrial Park, which the city also will get back.

"We liked the original plans -- they were exciting and innovative -- but nothing happened," Henderson City attorney Shauna Hughes said of the site near Wagon Wheel Drive and U.S. 95.

"The land sale contract called for certain deadlines. About a year-and-a-half ago it became apparent that those deadlines were not going to be met."

Keating's request for extensions to develop the land she purchased for $1.2 million in 1997 and the 66 additional acres was denied by the City Council in February 1999. Black Mountain Studios responded by suing the city to force it to sell Keating the land in several parcels.

Hughes said the city decided to settle the suit not because it did anything wrong but because a prolonged litigation would have been far more costly.

"It would have been costly not only in time and money, but also we would not have been able to develop the land," Hughes said.

Tonya Hunt, Doris Keating's assistant, declined to comment on the settlement of the suit.

The city also agreed to set aside 25 percent of the settlement that will be held in a special account while a suit against Keating by InSynch, managed by Mary Colleen O'Callaghan-Miele, goes through the legal system.

That lawsuit is over a disagreement regarding five acres of the original 20 that was sold to Keating. Studio Enterprises was to have to compensate InSynch for securing leases for the studio, according to court documents. Also according to court papers, if the studio is not built, InSynch is to receive 66 percent of the proceeds from the five acres.

Hughes said the future of the business park will be placed in the hands of the city's Property Management Committee, which includes officials from several departments, including economic development.

Hughes said the vision of the business park still is to bring in firms with good paying jobs, like the studio had promised to do.

The proposed studio had a troubled history not only with the city but also with its residential neighbors.

Residents of the surrounding developments, like the Mission Hills community, were divided on whether the studio should be built. Many had protested that the pyrotechnic displays would frighten their horses in the rural area.

Others feared that such a tourist attraction would destroy the serenity of neighborhoods, bring increased traffic and pollution to the area and obliterate their view of the mountains.

Those who supported the project said it would bring desperately needed economic diversity -- something other than gambling -- to the area.