June 27th, 2012

Here comes the Boom with “Hollywood Devens”! That’s right. After years of setbacks and rumors to boot, Massachusetts is banging out the state’s first film and television studio complex. Let’s start drilling with MJM Development because they have jolted us up!

MJM is specifically incorporated for the turn-key development of “Hollywood Devens”. The company represents a small group of private Massachusetts real estate developers and equity investors that have assembled a seasoned team that includes experienced Hollywood film industry consultants, studio operators, and designers with strong Massachusetts affiliations to make this groundbreaking studio a reality.

“This is going to be a world-class facility to help make Massachusetts a filming destination,” said Chris Byers, director of studio operations. “It will also be an economic engine for Massachusetts.”

It was Summer twenty-eleven when this project gave us a summer buzz but was similar to the infamous Plymouth Rock and Southfield Studio that have dehydrated us with promises of a studio complex. However Holly-Devens has hydrated us back up. Lots of gossip that the project would start this year and well, it has, this week! Break a leg!

By Summer twenty-thirteen, if the studio project runs smoothly, Massachusetts will have a studio to call its home.  The first phase includes four sound stages, at 18,000 square feet each, office space and a commute from Boston! It’s pretty priceless, yet the tag says $30 million and it’s almost a 60 mile rondevu for us extras.  I wouldn’t change the GPS for a second! It’s the destination that counts.  The Director, Michael Meyers says the facility will employ 300 to 400 people within a year and a half. Works for us!

“The reason this one is going to work out is we’ve worked very closely with the developer,” said George A. Ramirez, MassDevelopment’s executive vice president of Devens Operations. He said MassDevelopment spent 18 months negotiating and discussing details of the project with Mr. Meyers and his team.

Once a base that soiled live bombs, rockets and torpedoes, the former Army base, Devens is now a hot spot for fueling the local economy. It’s hard to predict the future of Holly-Devens that will be constructed on the 15-acre site binged on Jackson Road. We hope the project will continue to hammer it up and will provide the walls of endless possibilities that will bedazzle the future productions here in the Bay State.

Tell us what you think of “Hollywood Devens”?