Plymouth Rock Studios announces $550m loan to start construction

September 24, 2009 06:37 PM

Sonja Legere for The Boston Globe

A field of Hollywood dreams? The Waverly Oaks Golf Course is the proposed site of the studio.

By Christine Legere, Globe Correspondent

A team of California film executives, who came to Plymouth two years
ago with a plan to build the first full-fledged production studio on
the East Coast, is ready to make good on that promise.

Plymouth Rock Studios announced today that it has secured a $550
million construction loan from an international lender in Florida,
Prosperity International LLC.

Prosperity International, a multi-billion-dollar firm based in
Orlando, Fla., has been involved in projects across the globe,
including the Caribbean, Europe, Western and South Africa, Latin
America and the United States.

Sometimes the company arranges financing for large infrastructure
projects. In the case of the studio project, Prosperity International
will be the direct lender. The first payment to Plymouth Rock is set
for November.

With money in hand, the studio
company's next step is purchase of the Waverly Oaks Golf Course, the
240-acre target site that carries a price tag of $16.5 million. The
deal is set to close in November, about the same time construction on a
$50 million access road to the facility will get underway. Studio
construction will begin in earnest in the spring and the facility will
open for business in the spring of 2012.

The studio complex will consist of 14 sound stages, a 10-acre back
lot, production and post-production facilities, a theater and amenity
village. Planners also expect to give a ground lease for some major
hotel there. The facility will allow producers to make movies and
television shows from start to finish, right on site -- something never
before possible on the East Coast.

"I think it speaks to the strength and vision David Kirkpatrick and
Earl Lestz put together," said Plymouth Rock's real estate partner Bill
Wynne of the two top company officials who came up with the studio
plan. "This is a seriously large deal in a terrible economy."

While Plymouth Rock officials had thought the project might have to
be built in phases, they now plan to construct the entire complex,
including 1.3 million square feet of building space, over two years.
The educational facility will be the only component notready for the
opening.



Plymouth Rock has spent about $11 million to date on engineering
studies and plans needed to secure local permits as well as on material
required for its 1,000-page environmental impact study.



Before construction on the studio can begin, the state must sign off on
the impact report submitted by Plymouth Rock officials on Sept. 15. The
public comment period on the EIR will close Oct. 23 and Energy and
Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles is expected to make a
decision by Oct. 30.

While the local Planning Board has already signed off on a so-called
"master site plan" for the project, more specific information on each
of its components will be required as building moves forward.



"This whole project is going to come to life in the next month," Wynne
said. "We obviously had to focus on the capital. Now that we have
access to the money, we can start to implement the visions, goals and
dreams we've talked about."

The studio will also be LEED-certified, keeping its carbon footprint
to a minimum. Plymouth Rock has estimated the studio will create over
2,000 high-income jobs and promises to provide "the infrastructure for
sustained growth of the entertainment industry in New England."