Bracks Backs Studio With $40m Loan
The Age
Wednesday January 30, 2002
The Victorian Government will lend $40million in taxpayers' funds to a private sector consortium to help build a film and television complex at Docklands.
The Central City Studios consortium, chaired by former Coles Myer head Peter Bartels, was named yesterday as the preferred tenderer for the proposed $111million project, which promises to create 300 jobs during construction and 1000 ongoing full-time jobs from next year.
The deal is subject to further negotiations over the next 60 days, but the government has secured agreement from Central City that at least 25 per cent of film and television production at the facility will have local content.
As the Docklands studio is not scheduled to be operational until the middle of next year, Premier Steve Bracks also announced that the government had leased 12,000 squares metres of temporary studio space at St Albans.
Mr Bracks said he was confident the local film and television industry was big enough to accommodate three studios - Docklands, Fox in Sydney and Warners in Queensland.
``If you look at Fox Studios in Sydney, there is about a two-year wait to get in, to get space in Fox," he said.
``I know from my travels internationally with the major film studios when I visited Los Angeles last year, that they wanted to film in Australia, they wanted to film in Victoria."
Under the consortium's proposal, the facility will have four film and two television sound stages of varying sizes, covering a total area of 7060 square metres.
It will include integrated production support areas and a $60million commercial cluster development for industrial tenants.
``Their proposal promises to deliver a world-class studio facility which caters for both domestic and international film and television production, and delivers the government's required operating outcomes, including access for local productions," Mr Bracks said.
The government said it would not release full financial details of the deal until the final contracts were negotiated, but Central City confirmed that the government had agreed to lend $40million to the consortium for an unspecified time.
Mr Bartels said the project represented an opportunity for Melbourne to be involved in the creation of a world-class facility.
``I think Docklands is a very important asset that Melbourne owns," he said. ``It's been struggling to get going, it's fair to say, so I think this is a project that suits Docklands perfectly."
Mr Bartels said he was drawn to the project because he believed film and television production was a modern, contemporary industry that created jobs and had significant export potential.
``This fits a new opportunity for Australia," he said. ``Many years ago we exported wool. We exported a whole host of primary metals. This is a new export industry because we are capable of making products here in Melbourne and exporting them ... immediately to the world."
Opposition Leader Denis Napthine said yesterday that he was concerned that taxpayer funds were being put ``at risk in a venture that really should be funded by the private sector".
Dr Napthine said he welcomed new film production in Victoria, but he called on the State Government to release full details of the deal with the preferred bidder.
``The government has provided the opportunity with land at Docklands," he said. ``They don't need to put taxpayers' money at risk in this sort of venture, which really belongs in the private sector."
Peter Bartels: who he is
• Chairman of Central City Studios.
• CEO and managing director of Coles Myer 1992-97.
• CEO and managing director of Foster's • Brewing Group 1990-92.
• Present chairman of the Australian Sports • Commission; Australian Institute of Sport; • Australian Sports Foundation; Women's and Children's Health Network.
• Directorships include Sport Australia Hall of Fame; Cycling Australia; organising committee for Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006; Melbourne Business School Ltd (University of Melbourne).
• Member of the Business Council of Australia for eight years.
• Won a cycling gold medal at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.
© 2002 The Age
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