By: Russ Burlingame on June 7, 2012
Real estate magnate, reality star and noted blowhard Donald Trump announced plans yesterday to construct a massive movie studio over twice the size of Universal Studios in Southern Florida, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Joe Martinez, a candidate for mayor of Miami, reportedly surprised a meeting of the Miami-Dade County Commission yesterday with the announcement, saying that Trump Studio City would be constructed on land currently owned by the county and positioned near Homestead Air Reserve Base. The land in question became city property after Hurricane Andrew and was previously planned as an airport, but those plans fell through.
The county will find out whether it’s likely to happen in 90 days after the Commission voted unanimously to conduct a feasibility study that will take twice that time, with preliminary findings reported halfway through. The study will likely be very critical, as THR reports that the county is still smarting after having provided hundreds of millions of dollars to the Miami Marlins baseball team for a new stadium recently. Still, moves like this are not uncommon, and large corporations often enjoy massive public endowments for projects that are perceived to generate long-term revenue.
Iron Man 3 received somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million to film at Screen Gems in North Carolina.
Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who was on-hand for the discussion, said, “It could inject as much at $262,000 in local revenue (a day), with 15-20 acre back lots that really handle any type of movie. Any type of television series that could ever be dreamed of.”
Just yesterday, ComicBook.com reported that Iron Man 3, which takes place partly in Miami, is filming primarily in North Carolina at least partly because there wasn’t a location in Southern Florida that was large enough to accommodate the film’s needs.
