As we are moving closer to the June 2nd close of the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session, neither of the film tax incentive bills, AB238 or SB220, have passed. However, both are declared exempt from this deadline in order to be voted for outside of the session dates if they don’t pass in time. This gives time for additional review and potential revisions if not revamping of the bills, as we have suggested before with a simplified and more universal approach. Still, we have to acknowledge the possibility that neither bill passes or they pass but without any revisions at all, so what does that mean for Babs Do Studios if Nevada doesn’t work?
Babs Do Studios was originally designed and meant for Babs Do Productions to have a studio base to work from for all of our various media projects and to do so in Las Vegas, our lifelong favorite vacation city and our family’s current home. This sentiment is the exact same that actor Mark Wahlberg has expressed with his partnership with Sony Pictures and Howard Hughes Holdings and actors Nicolas Cage, Dean Cain, and Jeremy Renner have voiced their support for the film industry in Nevada as well. It is a wonderful city full of world famous sights and sounds and would be a perfect place to start Hollywood 2.0!
Not only is there support and interest from top Hollywood talent, investors, and multiple studios, including Babs Do Studios, there is also an exciting series of events taking place in the industry with a number of states that are raising the bar with new film tax credit programs nearing $1 Billion Dollars each and the announcement of a potential add-on federal production incentive program to revitalize domestic film and media production across the United States! Despite all of this, Nevada has shown indecision for two bills that provide budgets of $98 Million Dollars to $105 Million Dollars to upgrade the state’s current $10 Million Dollar production incentive program.
Developing A Film Studio Business in Las Vegas
As the only Nevada-born UNLV-Film-trained studio development that wants to build in Nevada regardless of the passing of AB238 or SB220, we would be honored to be the leaders in developing Nevada into a film production hub but our experience trying to bring Babs Do Studios to the state has been quite telling about its inner workings and some troubling trends.
The Las Vegas area has seen a number of large event sites, offices, and land properties go up for sale, most of them city-owned and all would have been perfect for redevelopment into a Babs Do Studios site with support from the city. We did our due diligence and reached out to see what could be done to turn many of these sites into a Babs Do Studios site but so far nearly all of them have been designated to be turned into low-to-mid income housing projects, including the Cashman Event Center which presented a nearly turnkey film studio opportunity for the city and now even the Grant Sawyer State Office property with its ample oversized parking lot and high end office, is set to be sold to another housing developer. Even the 69-Acre Sam Boyd Stadium is left sitting unused behind chain-link fencing due to “the city being uninterested in divesting the property at this time.”
Our worry is that Las Vegas is very much almost out of large lots of land to develop. Looking at a map of the city shows that Las Vegas is in a sea of homes outside of the Las Vegas Strip. The only other thing being built faster than small homes, apartments, and condos is new mid-size warehousing developments and “basic box” office properties despite a wealth of pre-existing commercial and industrial properties being listed for sale or lease and have been empty for years now. The news media recently declared Las Vegas has not only a housing crisis but also a jobs crisis and from our research, all of these proposed housing developments are going right up against reports of a possible recession and an outright freeze in Nevada real estate activity with some housing developers even slowing or reducing their project scale due to the lack of demand.
A jobs crisis is resolved with business investment and despite Nevada’s often used slogan of being “Open For Business”, Babs Do Studios and the thousands of jobs it can create in months has been stalled in Las Vegas due to a major lack of business development support for film and media and with city planners removing every large piece of land and ideal redevelopment property the city has left to turn into housing. This isn’t just a concern for our business in Nevada, it should be a concern for Nevada citizens as well. How is the population going to grow with new residents in Las Vegas when they have nowhere to work?
Las Vegas has recently put a lot of emphasis on building new sports stadiums and being the home for big sporting events like the Formula 1 racing event. Gambling and sports are both dependent on tourism and tourism, like sports, is seasonal. By comparison, the film and media industry is constant, historically recession and depression-proof, and is an everlasting resource for press and advertising. For what is called “The Entertainment Capital of the World”, the film and media industry would fit in perfectly with Nevada and with the current economic situation in the state, the entertainment industry can provide an incredible number of solutions! Yet to build a film studio and all of the other accompanying businesses like new movie theaters, media event spaces, rental houses, film museums, or any other kind of related infrastructure and business possibilities, there needs to be space to build and Las Vegas has dwindled its land resources down to fractions of an acre across most of the city area.
Even more troubling is what the city seems to value and what it doesn’t. Recently the city of Henderson provided $60 Million Dollars worth of co-funding to a $70 Million Dollar sports complex on St. Rose Parkway. The business partnered with the city to make it all happen, an option we were never presented with in all of our meetings and discussions, and the complex is set to provide a couple hundred jobs at most along with the benefit of having its sports facilities for the local community at reduced rates. For Babs Do Studios, we have been looking at another city-owned site in Henderson that provides adequate acreage and potential utilities and is only a short distance down from Green Valley Ranch. Despite the former development coincidentally also being a sports complex proposal that had fallen through, the city is still wanting the site to be built into a sports complex even though, by car, the new St. Rose Parkway sports complex and this proposed one would be within 10 minutes of each other including:
Two EoS Fitness centers – Henderson Multigenerational Community Center – Life Time Fitness at Green Valley Ranch – Anytime Fitness – Protogym – Row House Fitness – Redemption Fitness – Refined 24/7 Gym – Tread Vegas Fitness Henderson – Cult Fitness – Vibe 28 – Aguirre Fitness – Las Vegas Athletic Club – Valley View Recreation Center – Downtown Henderson Recreation Center – Black Mountain Recreation Center – Uptown Jungle Fun Park – Silver Springs Recreational Center – Discovery Park – Silver Springs Park – Various Smaller Public Parks In-between and Local School Gyms with several Basketball, Tennis, Pickleball, and Volleyball Courts with other various activity spaces and sports facilities included
Along with all of that, the land is valued at around $32 Million Dollars and our midrange studio build is $35 Million Dollars, which combined is less cost than the sports complex the city just put up funds for, can be built within months, and with job creation estimated to be around 1600 jobs across full time, part time, and indirect jobs at the least without even including the constant mass cycle of media production jobs being generated with new film and media infrastructure and industry for the entire area and the state, the city’s planning departments may want to consider opening up investment into film and media development, ideally starting with Babs Do Studios!
The Question
This brings us back to our question, “What If Nevada Doesn’t Work?” It is a question we have been wondering about in these past few weeks especially in talks with local Nevada-based film production companies and artists who all have their opinions on the potential for AB238 or SB220 passing. So, we have a number of scenarios to consider:
No Bills Pass
If it does turn out that Nevada doesn’t pass either AB238 or SB220, we are faced with the situation that Nevada has had since the beginning, Nevada won’t have major film and media infrastructure, Nevada won’t have a competitive film tax program, and Nevada won’t have a major film and media industry. Everything would be stuck on an independent artist level and Nevada would have to essentially sit and wait for major productions to come to the state that really want a project set in Nevada, most likely Las Vegas. There will also continue to be projects that film a small segment before leaving to film elsewhere, leaving Nevada back at square one with no new economic development in the film and media sector and after everything that transpired with these bills, potentially for a very long time.
One or Both Bills Pass
On the other hand, if they do pass one or somehow both bills, while the potential for us to make movies with a modern film tax incentive program would be there, the fundamental problem with producing movies in Nevada is that there isn’t major infrastructure for large scale production. Nevada would be left stuck until December 2029 at the latest for a single film studio development. The usage of the $25M Film Production Tax Incentives available from 2025 onwards would possibly be a complete waste for economic impact without new infrastructure that has prevented productions from filming in Nevada in the first place. Independent productions might be able to benefit with more credits available but as the program requires a minimum $500,000 Dollar spend and is still limited to $6M for only the highest end productions, the economic impact of productions pre-2028/2029 studio completion dates would likely be on a much smaller level without studio infrastructure in place and/or a reduced minimum spend rate.
One or Both Bills Pass with Our Amendments
If the bills decide to open up infrastructure tax credits for other studio developments besides Summerlin Studios or Nevada Studios, this would help provide tax credits for us to build Babs Do Studios as well and bring Hollywood 2.0 to Nevada in 2025! Lowering the minimum production spend would also fuel a production boost for local independent artists and smaller productions to maintain a healthy local economy for film and media production and training. A simple change over the previous scenario, this would also open up so many other new infrastructure possibilities including new independent production facilities, movie theaters, festivals, and other related events that can apply.
Simplified Film Tax Bill – Combined Strength For All
Our simplified bill proposal, mentioned previously in another post, can fix multiple issues within AB238 and SB220 so that we and other potential developers, production companies, and artists would then have the incentives and flexible dual-use budget with combined infrastructure and production credits in place to build up infrastructure far more quickly than a single studio development and engage the economic impact benefits of the new program with an easier point of entry for production. With Babs Do Studios in place to work with everyone through our new age studios, large scale production and the beginnings of Hollywood 2.0 can start in Nevada within 2025! Sony, Warner Bros, Howard Hughes Holdings, UNLV, Birtcher Development, and MBS Group would lose nothing going this route and would be free to adjust their studio building plans and timelines as needed without heavy spending commitments, strict timelines, fines, and other mechanisms they are currently self-imposing with their current amendments. The universal nature of this simplified bill would allow every region of Nevada to benefit and the smart spending this solution provides will directly increase Nevada’s film and media production and distribution capacity by massive degree compared to what the current AB238 and SB220 bills provide.
Partnership with Babs Do Studios
Alternatively, in the event that AB238 and/or SB220 pass without any sort of major revision and they remain as they currently are, we have already presented potential partnership offers to both sides in order to provide the benefits of Babs Do Studios to hasten Nevada’s film and media development at the very least and we would do our best to work within the limits of the bills’ currently written programs. This would benefit most of Nevada with our quick to build infrastructure in place and guaranteed creative output providing an influx of new production jobs, professional training, local film community support, and greatly increased educational outreach. In the years to follow, Nevada Studios or Summerlin Studios would then finish construction and be able to offer all of the promised benefits their developments would bring in addition to what Babs Do Studios already would have in place. If we go the possible route of building on either Summerlin Studios’ or Nevada Studios’ sites on a temporary basis, Babs Do Studios could relocate our modular constructed facilities once their construction nears completion in 2028 or 2029 or we can remain if it is decided to keep our developments combined on the same lot.
While we may not agree on a number of elements and limitations in the programs for AB238 and SB220, this partnership approach would mutually benefit all of our studio developments and provide the greatest benefit for Nevada with Babs Do Studios augmenting the development process with greatly sped up timeline for production-ready facilities and increased availability for film and media jobs and new industry for the state with various productions by Babs Do Productions via Babs Do Studios, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Nevada Studios.
As a last resort, our partnership could extend to a scenario where neither bills pass and we could still work together to economically build Babs Do Studios within Las Vegas to provide the missing infrastructure and support for productions from all parties under the existing $10M film production incentive program. By the next biennial legislative session, we would be able to campaign for our simplified film tax incentive program after showing what was possible with our Babs Do Studios infrastructure in place. This would prove the state truly could support a major investment in the film and media industry in order to make Nevada a major production destination, just as our Babs Do Studios infrastructure plan has been designed to do for areas without film and media programs.
The Worst Scenario
If neither bill passes, our offer for partnership is declined, or if one bill passes with none of our proposed amendments, meaning Nevada will be left waiting until December 2029 at the latest, we will have to heavily consider starting Babs Do Studios elsewhere and potentially leaving Nevada entirely. Like many Nevada artists who are hurting for jobs right now, we can’t be out of work for several years waiting for one new studio to be built when we know we can build our own Babs Do Studios within months and for far, far less! This is why we have been reaching out to both sides to try and find a solution to revise their bills or to bring both of them together to have a more open and universal bill that will allow all of our studios to be developed, built, and greatly profiting to the benefit of all Nevada artists and tax paying Nevada citizens.
The thought of possibly having to leave Nevada behind makes for a definite hard blow and a very difficult thing to consider. The atmosphere and fun of Las Vegas is something we have loved all of our lives and the possibility to work in that environment making films and shows is something many years ago as UNLV Film students we had hoped and dreamed of doing once we became working professionals. We have so many truly great and fun projects that would be perfect to make in Las Vegas and show the very best of the area and the city and it would be a challenge to replicate those in another state. Most importantly, the Nevada artists and UNLV students we have spoken to personally and witnessed with the various meetings and events for AB238 and SB220 would be left without a solution for staying in Nevada to pursue their dream careers in film and media. Perhaps the one thing we look forward to most with our Babs Do Studios development, one of the biggest reasons why we designed our studios to be so efficient and quick to build, is to be able to tell all of those hopeful UNLV students and young Nevada filmmakers that “they won’t have to wait years for their dreams to come true, their dreams come true today!”
Conclusion
What we can say for the moment, while the future of “Babs Do Studios – Nevada” may be unclear for now, what is clear is the massive push from the public for Nevada’s state and local governments to offer support for this new industry. With support from the local film community and Nevada students well spoken for, looking around at discussions with filmmakers and groups online, including the opinion pages for the bills, the popularity of the idea of Nevada’s new film and media industry has everyone ready to beat down the doors to be a part of Hollywood 2.0 in Nevada! The State of Nevada has to make a choice and very soon in order to strike while the iron is white hot with all of the current events in entertainment taking place with the migration of the film and media industry from California, the growth of state and potential federal film incentive programs, and the major new push for investment in domestic media production to combat international production flight. If the state lets this opportunity go, even chasing away Babs Do Studios and our new age designs and economical point of entry by using up all of the available land in the Las Vegas area and denying support at every turn, then there really is no telling if something like this will ever come around again for Nevada.
On May 24th, the AB238 bill was moved forward in the legislature and it is soon going to be voted upon. There is still time to add additional amendments and revisions to AB238 and we are recommending their team to review our suggestions. SB220 is still off in the wings and possibly waiting to see how AB238 goes. The Babs Do Studios partnership offers to Nevada Studios’ and Summerlin Studios’ teams are still offered with Babs Do Studios ready to be built at a moment’s notice to aid all of our shared goals of establishing Nevada as a new central hub for film and media production.
Lastly, while many sites have been taken for housing and the question of the Henderson sports complex issue remains to be settled, there are still some that exist that could yet prove to be the home(s) of “Babs Do Studios-Nevada”! We will be continuing to work independently with the city of Las Vegas, Henderson, and Summerlin to find a solution to build Babs Do Studios in the Las Vegas area as soon as possible and a number of sites are coming on the market soon that we have been in talks for that could prove to be our golden ticket path to get Nevada’s new film and media industry up and running and hopefully within the upcoming months of 2025!