Monday, Nov. 4, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.
Producer Anna Marie Davis delivered a check for $117,360 to the city today in back rent for a proposed movie studio, Finance Director Bob Kenney said this morning.
The delivery appears to fulfill the first deadline of a $59,400 annual lease approved by the Boulder City Council two weeks ago. The council approved the lease despite expressing concern about Davis' ability to attract investors.
"There is a question," Mayor Bob Ferraro said today. "We still have to call the bank to see if there are funds in the account it's been drawn on."
The city planned to call the bank after it opened at 9 a.m., Ferraro said.
Davis could not be reached for comment this morning. But in her most recent plans, she said payment of the back rent would be obtained as part of $1.5 million she hoped to secure to renovate a World War II-era hangar. Sound stages and a small cafeteria are planned for the hangar. Eventually, Davis plans to build a supporting media park on surrounding land.
Davis proposed the studio in October 2000, saying it would bring good-paying career jobs to Boulder City as well as added business to the downtown commercial corridor at a time when a planned bypass will likely divert tourist and other traffic south of the shops.
Davis talked informally about requiring a 100-acre lease as recently as April, but by Oct. 22 asked the City Council for a lease of just 3.1 acres, with the ability to lease future development based on building footprints rather than land used.
Because it is proposed for land south of the Nevada Highway in the city's redevelopment area, the city has offered to pay $3.3 million through redevelopment bonds to bring electricity, roads and landscaping to the studio.
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