Former Long Beach Boeing plant will convert to a Film Studio

According to the LA Times article today the former Boeing plant has been green lighted for use as a Movie studio, complete with 1.1 million square feet of shooting space, a hotel, and can hold a 22 acre backlot on the roof if necessary. Just to put things in perspective, Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach occupies 22.6 acres that would just about fit on the roof of Boeing’s building. Raleigh’s Manhattan Beach stages consists of five 25,000 square foot stages, and nine 18,000 square foot stages. In addition they have 300,000 sq. feet of office space and a set and lighting department. They are a decent size lot with 287,000 feet of stage space totaling 14 stages.

The building in Long Beach is in escrow now, but I see several problems with the studio. First off location; have you ever driven from the Westside to Long Beach during the week. Then of course there is Friday afternoons. Going in either direction is an exercise in futility and figure one hour commute minimum. Where is the crew coming from? Try the Valley and Santa Clarita. They will surely appreciate the two hour commute home.

Recently, there has been a spate of new studios built not just in Los Angeles, but elsewhere. Louisiana, has in place a pretty large financial (producer) incentives to attract movie productions and over the last few years has developed an infrastructure with tax based incentives. There is still production in Vancouver, but the up and coming state for production and studio space is Michigan. They are a few years away from rolling out the red carpet, but ribbon cuttings happen and groundbreakings might only be a year away. They in fact could trump all the financial incentives offered anywhere. 

I asked around to people connected in the studio industry and some were dubious and someone else thought it was a good idea; with a large hangar and a great location. However, having spent hours at KLGB airport  Jet Blue has a hub at Long Beach Airport and a jet on takeoff is very loud. United Parcel Service flies 747s in an out of KLGB and those Heavies are very loud. Of course their are helicopters buzzing around and GA aircraft taking off from runway 25R. I can’t think that it will be cheap to sound proof the hangar…