Lights, Camera, Action | Can the former Fort Devens Army base support a Hollywood-style movie studio?
Since the loss of the Evergreen Solar manufacturing facility, many in Devens have been hoping for a new high-profile business venture in the area. Elaine Gailey, owner of the Devens Grill, thinks it just might be coming, in the form of bringing Hollywood to town.
Andover development group, MJM Development LLC, is planning a $104-million film and television production complex, complete with eight sound stages along Jackson Road in Devens.
“I’m very excited about the whole idea,” Gailey said.
Highly Incentivized
MJM Principal Michael J. Meyers, a long-time real estate developer for the hospitality industry, said the need for the project is clear. State tax credits are drawing increasing numbers of major movie projects to film in Massachusetts, but there’s only a certain amount of on-scene work they can do before they have to leave the state to complete the project.
Putting sound stages and other amenities in a highly accessible spot like Devens, located off Route 2, would let movie makers stay in the state — and pick up more tax credits, Meyers said.
But some in the Central Massachusetts movie and TV world question how successful the Devens project could be.
“Every so often these things float up to the surface…” said Rob DelGaudio, a principal at Black Pearl Productions Inc., a small Hopkinton company that makes commercials, documentaries and promotional films. “A lot of us just kind of chuckle at it.”
Douglas Glazier, owner of another Hopkinton company, Boston Video Productions, which makes reality and magazine-style shows, said he sees the appeal in theory.
“If there was something that was a substantial size and had all the amenities, that might be attractive to people who need that,” he said.
But Glazier said he just doesn’t think there are enough people who do need it, especially since the industry is still in recession mode.
“I’d be nervous as an investor that it could actually fly,” he said.
Cash Flow
That, apparently, has been the response of some investors to another proposed project in the Bay State. A $400-million complex known as Plymouth Rock Studios, featuring 14 sound stages and a 10-acre back lot, was originally scheduled to break ground in Plymouth in 2010. Joseph DiLorenzo, chief operating officer for the endeavor, said a version of the plan is still moving forward, but the capital markets’ crash has made financing a challenge.
Meyers said his project is different from Plymouth Rock. For one thing, it’s smaller. The first stage involves building four sound stages and some associated facilities for $30 million, and even at completion, it would be only about a quarter as expensive as the Plymouth complex was originally expected to be.
More importantly, the Devens project is entirely privately financed.
“Our access to capital is something most people don’t have,” Meyers said.
George Ramirez, executive vice president of Devens operations at MassDevelopment, the state agency that oversees Devens, said the private financing is one of the things that makes him confident about the project’s prospects.
MassDevelopment is negotiating with MJM over the sale of the land for the project, but Ramirez said a $5 million tax increment financing (TIF) deal for the development is already set. The TIF will be phased in as the project moves forward, with $1.2 million at the end of Phase I, which includes 126,000 square feet and four sound stages, and the rest of the deal coming in increments if and when the rest of the project is built.
Right now, Meyers said, MJM is surveying the land, doing due diligence and continuing to work with West Coast advisors who have helped guide the project so far.
If plans go smoothly, the entire three-phase development will take 10 years to complete and will eventually generate 800 to 1,000 jobs.
Maura Peeler, general manager of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel at Devens Common Center, said she sees the plans for the complex as a major win for Devens as a whole, and for the hotel.
“We think if it’s going to create jobs in the area it’s going to create occupancies for us,” she said.
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