Acacia Filmed Entertainment has signed a commercial development agreement to build a film studio and production training facility in the Valley, the company announced Monday.
Earlier this summer, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey allowed a bill that proposed $125 million in tax incentives for TV and movie productions to become law and now film studios are trying to get a footing in Arizona before the incentives go into effect in 2023.Acacia’s Arizona Studio Complex will include 14 sound stages and support offices across 624,000 square feet on 70 acres of land. It will also include a 30-acre backlot for further expansion. The current plans for the project call for a 60,000-square-foot stage, which would be one of the largest in the world.
Acacia’s founder and the head of the project, Matthew George, told entertainment trade publication Variety that the project would be built in the “Scottsdale area” and a lobbyist who represented the company when the legislature considered Arizona Motion Picture Production Program bill told the Arizona Republic in April that the studio would be built on Salt River Pima-Maricopa tribal land near Talking Stick Resort.
Arizona has a long history of developers wanting to build movie production studios here, but the Acacia project is directly linked to a production studio. George formed Acacia Filmed Entertainment and Savvy Media Holdings in 2013 and has completed the financing and production on several major films. He also led the team that raised $175 million to relaunch Castle Rock Entertainment. George serves as co-president of Castle Rock with famed director and producer Rob Reiner as CEO and Michele Reiner as the other co-president. Castle Rock develops, produces, and finances movies under a first-look deal with Warner Bros.
“With strong consumer demand for quality original content, the need for studio soundstage space has increased and global studios are looking for financial incentives to support this ever-growing production pressure,” George said in a statement. “Acacia’s Arizona Studio Complex will deliver a world-class facility tailored to the highly specialized needs of top filmmakers coupled with competitive tax breaks to ease the burden of big budget productions.”
George is spearheading the project and has taken the title of president. He is being supported by Hernan Narea as CFO.
The total cost of the project will be at least $200 million, according to the Variety report, and George is working with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana to finance the development. George has brought on Salt Lake City-based Ajc Architects to design the project. Ajc designed the 29-acre Park City Film Studio, which is located adjacent to where Utah’s Sundance Film Festival is held.
The Arizona Studio Complex will be built in two phases, according to a company press release. The first phase will see the construction of seven sound stages of various sizes, 30,000 square feet of workshop space, support office space, 2,200 car parking spaces, studio reception and perimeter security. The second phase will include more sound stages, workshop space, post-production facilities, and places for affiliation with local colleges, incorporating lecture rooms, workshops, screening rooms, cafeteria and campus grounds. The Arizona Commerce Authority is still writing all the rules for the state’s tax incentive program focused on TV and motion picture production. Many pushing the bill hope that it will bring a lot of movie business to Arizona, just as whole film industries grew in Albuquerque and Atlanta when New Mexico and Georgia passed similar incentive bills.