Santa Fe County files foreclosure action on studios

Santa Fe Studios must pay $2.5M

SANTE FE — Santa Fe County has filed a foreclosure action against Santa Fe Studios, the film studio south of town, over money owed to the county for purchase of the studio’s site.

But the studio’s managers say they “have a solution” and will present it to the county by Tuesday, County Commissioner Liz Stefanics said Friday night. One of the studio’s owners said all issues between the county and the studio have been resolved.

Stefanics confirmed that the foreclosure suit was filed earlier in the day.

“I would like to see Santa Fe Studios be successful,” Stefanics said. She said the studio adds to the economy and provides jobs. But with a debt to taxpayers involved, “we have to be fiscally prudent,” Stefanics said.

Santa Fe Studios, operated by the family of Lance, Conrad and Jason Hool, bought the 65-acre site from the county for $2.6 million. Under a mortgage plan with a payment schedule based on the number jobs created by the studio, the deadline for pay- ing off the purchase was in mid-December.

Santa Fe Studios, which opened in 2011, made two $524,000 payments toward the mortgage and has also paid $10,000 in interest. As of December, the studio would have had to pay another $2.5 million or so to complete the purchase, including penalties and interest that have accrued, a county spokeswoman has said.

The county let the December deadline pass, and the County Commission passed a measure authorizing County Manager Katherine Miller to negotiate and execute a forbearance agreement delaying the payment deadline for a time to seek “remedies for their (the studio owners’) defaults.”

If there was no agreement, the county attorney was authorized “to initiate and prosecute” proceedings to enforce the county’s rights under its agreements with the studio, which include foreclosure for nonpayment.

A foreclosure raises the prospect of the county taking ownership of the studio, which was built with significant public financial help. The county could sell it, lease the property or hire someone to run the studio.

Stefanics said that on Friday representatives of the studio tried to get the county to post- pone the court action but were too late to stop the foreclosure action from being filed. “They think they have a solution and asked us to wait until Tuesday,” Stefanics said.

Santa Fe Studios’ Jason Hool said Friday night that “all issues have been resolved” and that he expected the county and the studio to issue a joint news release next week.

He said he wasn’t aware of any court action and referred other questions to County Manager Miller, who couldn’t be reached for comment.

Before construction in 2010 and 2011, Santa Fe Studios received a $10 million state grant and help from Santa Fe County in the form of a $6.5 million loan guarantee and $3.5 million in infrastructure paid for by the county, as well as sale of the site under a mortgage installment payment plan.

The studio, with two 19,275-square-foot stages and 25,000 square feet of production office space, has hosted several major productions, including the movies “We’re the Millers,” “A Million Ways to Die in the West” and “The Ridiculous Six,” along with the “Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey” TV series. Its owners say an expansion is needed to compete with other New Mexico studios.