PONTIAC — While Chicago waits for Cinespace Studios to fish or cut bait, Michigan went all out to welcome Pontiac’s big, new Raleigh Studios. Nine hundred guests attended the party, including politicians, financiers, union reps and a cross section of the state’s film industry.
Raleigh Studios Linden Nelson said that $80 million studio ? perhaps the largest non-automotive investment in Pontiac’s history — will open in early 2011.
Among the guests were A. Alfred Taubman and his son, Taubman Co. COO William Taubman and Brotherhood of Teamsters president James P. Hoffa.
Hoffa said the studio project give the economy of the entire state a boost. The new studio is expected to create 5,139 new jobs, including 3,600 directly, according to Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office.
It is one of three studio projects that Granholm officials said are expected to create nearly 6,000 jobs. Granholm proposed film incentive programs in Michigan in 2008 with bi-partisan support.
The studio will be equipped for 3D animation and special effects, and serve as a learning center for Michigan film students. Students are expected from the nearby Detroit College for Creative Studies and Oakland Community College.
Steven Lemberg, CFO for Michigan Motion Picture Studios, which is responsible for the Raleigh venture in Pontiac, said Raleigh started developing a revenue stream in 2009 by offering by movie companies a variety of production assistance and equipment rental.
The new studio, he said, “will elevate our business to an entirely different level.”
When completed early next year, the Raleigh complex will include nine separate sound stages of varying size. The main building with extra high ceilings will have three 30,000-sq. ft. stages, while the second building will include two 20,000-sq. ft. stages and two additional 12,000-sq. ft. sound stages.
Two additional smaller stages also will be built into the “annex” or the office building that once housed the operations of companies supplying General Motors. The annex also will house the company’s headquarters and lease space to long-term film-related tenants.– Joseph Szczesny, Daily Tribune
LANSING: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. The Michigan Film Office has 5,000-plus locations on its locations database ? an inventory of more than 70,000 photographs of the diverse Michigan landscape throughout all four seasons.
Thanks in large part to submissions by the public, the MFO database has grown from 634 locations to more than 5,000 locations in just over two years.
Powered by Reel-Scout?, the Michigan Film Office locations library also offers interactive mapping through Google and live weather data through The Weather Channel.
