Moving on with Santa Fe Studios
It took some twists and turns to get there, but Santa Fe Studios last week came through with $2,177,135 to complete purchase of the land south of town that Santa Fe County sold to the studio for its site in 2010.
In the end, Santa Fe Studios paid $3,452,698 for the 65 acres off N.M. 14. That includes penalties and interest on top of the original sale price of $2.62 million.
The mortgage was supposed to be paid off in December. The county foreclosed on the studio — raising the prospect of Santa Fe County taxpayers eventually owning a filmmaking facility — but reached a deal with the studio’s ownership to postpone further legal action until June 13. Santa Fe Studios beat the deadline by paying off the debt last week.
It’s good that the studio has fulfilled its financial obligations to the county.
The studio got plenty of taxpayer help before it was built — it received a $10 million state economic development grant and the county set aside $6.5 million to guarantee a bank loan for the studio. The county also provided $3.5 million in infrastructure at the site, as well as agreed to the sale of the land under a mortgage installment payment plan.
When Santa Fe Studios last year applied for a $22.2 million industrial revenue bond to pay for expansion and then, in the next breath, asked for postponement of having to pay off the land purchase, county officials balked. They took the right stance and said they wouldn’t consider the bond issue — which would provide roughly a $4 million property tax break for the studio over a couple of decades, impacting county government and public schools — until Santa Fe Studios made good on the site purchase.
The county also took the major legal step of filing the foreclosure suit before giving the studio until this month to come up with what was owed.
Financial arrangements weren’t the only issue. In what appeared to be a PR campaign intended to persuade or pressure the County Commission and/or the general public to support the studio with still more financial help, Santa Fe Studios via a news release took credit for creating every film-related job in New Mexico over the past few years, even when the work took place at other studios, like the Greer Garson in Santa Fe or Albuquerque Studios, on the theory that Santa Fe Studios was the true magnet for all the film work.
When the county agreed to hold off on pursing foreclosure to allow the studio to come up with money to close out the land purchase, part of deal was that the studio could make no news releases or communicate with the media “concerning anything involving the county” without prior consent during the forbearance period.
But that’s all in the past now. Santa Fe Studios has put money on the table and the county has confirmed that the studio has in fact created enough jobs with productions like “We’re the Millers” to meet the requirements of its public financing. It’s time to wish Santa Fe Studios good luck and prosperity as the film business blossoms into a significant part of the local and state economy.
When the dust settles, the County Commission can take a long, hard look at the bond issue application and decide if it’s a good deal — not only for Santa Fe Studios, but also for taxpayers — through prospective job production and other economic activity.
Santa Fe Studios, which includes the dressing room shown above, has completed the purchase of its site south of town by making a payment of more than $2 million to the Santa Fe County government.