Film studio sought at naval base

Letters spelling out "SouthField" have been affixed to the gray cobblestone wall facing Route 18, marking a massive new development at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station. If all goes as planned, "Hollywood" could be added, too.

State Representative Ronald Mariano has been talking with a team of independent movie producers who may want to build a major motion picture production studio on the site. (These producers don't want to be named, but Mariano said their credits include the HBO series "Rome.")

They've already toured the base, he said, scouting potential locations to build a full-service studio complex -- complete with back lots, soundstages, and editing facilities.

These producers "were searching for a big hunk of land on the East Coast," said Mariano, a Quincy Democrat. "They were originally looking in New York, and when they heard about South Weymouth, they were interested."

A movie studio would be a novel addition to the former naval air base -- now dubbed SouthField -- which is being developed into a residential and commercial neighborhood with a village center, recreation facilities, and athletic fields.

Last week, Mariano said he was "running around Hollywood guys" and holding meetings with Governor Deval Patrick and other state officials about what needs to be done to get a studio built in the Bay State.

New legislation provides tax credits for companies that shoot films in Massachusetts, but Mariano is aiming to provide extra incentives that would persuade the producers to build a brick-and-mortar facility here, where films can be created from start to finish, rather than just shot here. He wants to amend the state's definition of manufacturing to include motion picture production, a move that would make local film studios eligible for beneficial state programs.

He's also seeking to remove the sunset provision from the state's current tax credit incentive package, to help keep film production business from leaving the Bay State.

"It takes so long to get a script to production," he said. "If you have a sunset date of 2013, it means that in 2010 you're going to have to look somewhere else."

The thinking is that if show business became a permanent fixture in the Bay State, it would create more local jobs.

"We don't have a movie industry in Massachusetts, so I think anything we do to attract them, to get money and jobs added to our economy, we should look at," he said. "I think it would be a boon to the area."

Mariano's efforts to court Hollywood executives to South Weymouth suffered a setback recently when the language with the incentives he supports was stripped from the legislation. He then made his case to the governor. Mariano said he had a "positive meeting" with Patrick on June 25, and is waiting to hear back from the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, which asked for more time to analyze the numbers.

Massachusetts isn't the only state auditioning for a bigger role in the movie-making industry. Other states -- neighboring Connecticut among them -- have recently approved more aggressive tax incentives for film companies.

And this is not the first production company to express interest in Massachusetts real estate. Good News Holdings, a new, religiously inclined, "spiritainment" production company based in Los Angeles, is considering sites in Massachusetts to build a $150 million studio complex. One of those potential locations is in Plymouth, according to Nick Paleologos, the executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office.

Paleologos said he had also heard that the South Weymouth property had caught the eyes of some other production companies.

The Massachusetts Film Office "would love to see one of these proposals come to fruition," he said.

According to Paleologos, motion picture production studios have a better chance at being economically successful if there's a movie-making powerhouse such as Paramount and Columbia attached to the project -- where a major studio serves as an "anchor tenant" for the facility. Many of the recent proposals he's seen to build studio space outside of California involve independent producers taking the "if-you-build-it, they-will-come," approach, he said.

Nevertheless, Paleologos remains cautiously optimistic.

"It would be wonderful to have a state-of-the-art soundstage in Massachusetts that would be available to local filmmakers and from Hollywood," he said. "We'd love to see it happen.

"Knock on wood," he said, "we haven't lost any pictures because we don't have a soundstage."

SouthField's proximity to the coastline, downtown Boston, and Cape Cod and the Islands makes it a prime location for many businesses, including film and television production.

Plans for a soundstage would be incorporated into the overall redevelopment of the South Weymouth Naval Air Station. The entrance to the old military facility has undergone a makeover in recent months, and the developers of the project, LNR Corp., got the green light to begin work on the first 150,000 square feet of commercial space. Construction on the first housing units -- a mix of townhouses, condominiums, and apartments that will be part of a new neighborhood known as SouthField Highlands -- is scheduled to begin soon, and the first residents are to move in by spring 2009.

The developers submitted the Final Environmental Impact Report for the project with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office on May 31, and a public comment period is open until July 11.

The Final Environmental Impact Report can be viewed online at ssttdc.com. Copies are also available at public libraries in Abington, Rockland, and Weymouth, and at the offices of the South Shore Tri-Town development Corp. at 223 Shea Memorial Drive in South Weymouth, or by calling 978-897-7100.

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com.