Monday, September 22, 2008

New Movie Studio to open at former Douglas Aircraft Company site

A large, independent film production facility is planned for a property formerly used as Boeing's 717 passenger plane factory near the Long Beach Airport.

Long Beach Studios, LLC this week reached a deal with Boeing on the vacant property, which currently is in escrow, said The Boeing Co. spokesman Glen Golightly.

The approximately 77-acre property -- now occupied by two hangars -- formerly served as Boeing's 717 passenger plane plant before ceasing operations in 2006.
Long Beach Studios "will be the

If Long Beach Studios has its way, where Boeing 717s once inched down a Long Beach assembly line, film crews and actors will be making movies in 40 planned soundstages, according to the company's Web site. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)largest independent production facility in the world," according to its Web site.

When completed, the facility would contain "40 soundstages ranging in size from 12,000 to 200,000 square feet, and over 300,000 square feet of full-service rental office space," according to the Web site.

Jay Samit, an executive with Long Beach Studios, declined to share specifics of the project when reached by the Press-Telegram. He also declined to confirm the details expressed on the Web site, which does not specify a location for the facility.

The Web site also indicates that post-production facilities and screening rooms are envisioned at the site. The property is east of Lakewood Avenue, north of East Conant Street and west of Faculty Avenue, Golightly said.

The property is south of an access road that turns into East Lew Davis Street. Mayor Bob Foster and several other city officials declined to comment on the sale, citing an agreement with the parties involved that they wouldn't discuss the matter publicly until the deal had been finalized. "The mayor's going to respect that request," said Becki Ames, Foster's chief of staff. "In any sort of situation where you have multiple parties, complex financial transactions, complex issues, ... the role of the city is not to do promotion until a deal is done."

However, City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske of the 5th District, where the Boeing site is located, said Thursday that she too had learned that the property was in escrow.

About five months ago, Schipske visited the site with executives involved with the project.
Schipske said that she was told that the hangars would be used for sound stages, one of which might even be modified with a giant water tank for water filming.

"The reason they like it so much is not only the large piece of property, but it's the hangars, because those are instant sound stages," Schipske said. She was optimistic about the production facility's potential effects on Long Beach's economy. "This is the kind of industry that most of the time is pretty recession-proof," Schipske said. "If they truly can pull this off and put it together there, this would be an incredible plus for Long Beach."

A gain for 5th District If realized, the project also would benefit Cal State Long Beach students, said Craig Smith, chairman of the CSULB Film and Electronic Arts Department. Long Beach Studios has offered CSULB free use of a professional soundstage for students, he said.

The facility at Long Beach Studios would represent a vast improvement from the smaller one that students currently use, Smith said. "We have a mini-sound stage now that's so small it shouldn't even be called a soundstage," he said.

"The new one will be on a professional Hollywood scale." The new stage would put the CSULB film and television program "on par" with programs at Chapman University and USC, he said. "Another thing that's great about this is that it will be a wonderful opportunity for our students to find employment," Smith said. "They will need a lot of interns and student workers."

While the film studio may be a boon for Long Beach, it could cause problems for the Long Beach Airport. The airport now uses a portion of the Boeing property as a satellite parking lot, and completion of a planned new parking garage appears to be at least months away.

Of the airport's 4,935 parking spaces, 2,142 are in Lot D on the Boeing site at the corner of Conant Street and Lakewood Boulevard, according to airport spokeswoman Sharon Diggs-Jackson.

Airport officials said this summer that planned terminal improvements and the construction of a new parking garage are facing delays and that they couldn't give a timeline for the projects.

(Long Beach Press Telegram)

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