Officials’ feelings mixed on movie studio proposal

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.

The developer of a proposed $44 million movie studio will have to pay $117,000 in back rent before Boulder City officials renew her lease, Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro said Tuesday.

If the lease is approved, producer Anna Maria Davis also will have just 18 months to complete the first phase of the movie and television studio, Councilmen Bryan Nix and Mike Pacini said.

The Boulder City Council on Tuesday introduced a bill as a first step to renewing Davis' lease Oct. 22, but in a less ambitious, more tightly drawn form than in earlier drafts.

In conversations before the meeting, Ferraro said questions still remained. Other council members tempered their optimism with caution.

Davis for two years has worked to bring the studio to 30 acres between the Boulder City Airport and Nevada Highway. She says the studio will bring clean jobs, buoy existing businesses and help diversify the Southern Nevada economy.

"A lot of people can't believe it could truly happen here," Davis said. But she has organized financial and technical support from film industry experts, she said. If Boulder City doesn't approve her lease, the Boulder City native said she'll take her package to New York or Los Angeles.

Ferraro, however, said, "I think perhaps that some of the incentives being offered are greater than they should be."

The proposed lease would give Davis just the hangar and 3 acres to start, rather than the 30 acres originally proposed and the expansion to 100 acres discussed as recently as April.

Davis would pay $59,400 annually in rent. Future expansions would be approved on a case-by-case basis, with rent being charged roughly on the footprint. Because the project is in the city's redevelopment area, the city would provide infrastructure and landscaping.

Nix approved of the scaled-down lease, but said, "The biggest concern I have had is, 'Show me the money.' "

Councilman Joe Hardy stressed the potential of the project. The studio would be nonpolluting, use little water, create minimal traffic and bring new business to Boulder City without any need for growth, he said.

Councilwoman Andrea Anderson declined comment until she studies the issue further.

Though studio proposals around the state have been floated and then abandoned in recent years, Councilman Mike Pacini said, he still likes Davis' chances. The city could use her help, he said.

"The state has gaming, which we don't," Pacini said. "Maybe we bring in a movie studio and make movies."