Movie studio gaining momentum

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

A proposed $44 million movie production studio on 30 acres could have a permanent lease agreement worked out with the city within two weeks, removing one of the last hurdles to securing investors, Boulder City producer Anna Maria Davis said Tuesday.

The tentative lease agreement outlines incentives that would ensure producers can do business in Boulder City for 20 percent less than in Vancouver, B.C. Canada is viewed as Boulder City's main competitor in the venture.

Initially, AMD Productions, run by Davis, would lease an old hangar and 3 1/2 acres in the downtown redevelopment area at an annual rent of $70,000, similar to the rent Davis has paid since October 2000 as part of a temporary agreement with the city.

The new lease would also guarantee the studio the lowest available rates for water and electric power, the ability to expand to 30 acres, and an exclusive right to zoning for movie and television production within the city.

As previously agreed, the city would use redevelopment funds to build entry roads, water and sewer lines and to landscape the site.

The studio has its skeptics, but at least one of those, Bill Ferrence, manager of the Boulder City Credit Union, has raised his assessment of the project from "pipe dream" to a "50/50 proposition."

"If with limited investment on our part we end up with a legitimate studio at a time when we're facing a highway bypass and closure of multiple businesses along that route," Ferrence said, "the studio could benefit a number of ancillary businesses that could fill in that area. We have very little to lose finding out."

Ferrence serves on an ad hoc advisory committee set up by the city manager in October 2001 to act as a liaison between the city and AMD Productions.

The studio will bring much-needed middle class jobs, Davis says, and could help establish Boulder City as "a satellite of Hollywood."

That kind of "glamor and glitz" could help spur redevelopment in the old downtown, said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, president of Mayo and Associates. Her company completed a city-funded study of the downtown area in December 2001.

"Everyone knows what Las Vegas is going through with its attempts to revitalize its downtown, so any activity that can can bring in people, that creates energy and would have an entertainment value should be considered," Mayo-DeRiso said.

If the lease agreement is introduced by the Boulder City Council Aug. 28 as planned, the proposal would still have to go to a public hearing in September before final board approval.

In the meantime, the city redevelopment agency is focusing its efforts on processing applications from small downtown businesses asking for city money to help brighten storefronts and remodel old interiors.

"We're just keeping an eye on the studio," said John Hoole, director of community development. "Before we stir up the pot, we'd like to know that this thing is really going to go."