Hey, we could use a sound stage, studio near us, especially if the progress with our movie continues (D met a cousin in Montreal whose daughter is a writer for a major ABC dramedy).
Daley plans more borrowing for W. Side movie studio
The Daley administration has revised its assistance package yet again in hopes of turning a mountain of debris created by an FBI mole into a West Side movie studio complex.
The redevelopment agreement, quietly introduced by Mayor Daley at Wednesday's City Council meeting, would authorize the Illinois Finance Authority to issue up to $40 million in so-called “empowerment zone revenue bonds” for a project that now carries a $57 million price tag.
The city's initial plan called for $25 million in empowerment zone bonds. The 183,000-square-foot project at Roosevelt and Kostner is still in line to receive a $10.5 million city subsidy. ... Central Studios LLC is a partnership between California-based Raleigh Enterprises and Chicago attorney Stephen Allison and Lawndale-born Donald Jackson.Buscemi stressed that Chicago taxpayers will not be on the hook if the project goes belly up. However, the $40 million in bonds would count against the $230 million cap of empowerment zone bonds that Chicago can have at any given time.
In exchange for bribes allegedly paid to the late Ald. William Henry (24th), FBI mole John Christopher and others used the parcel to illegally dump debris that took two years and $5 million to remove.
On the eve of his 1999 re-election, Daley unveiled plans to transform that urban wasteland into a production house that could recapture for Chicago movie and commercial work lost to the East and West coasts. The project has been stuck in the mud ever since.
