Pontiac Film Studio Ready to Break Ground

July 27, 2010

By SHAUN BYRON
OF THE OAKLAND PRESS

Linden Nelson summed up his experience at making Raleigh Michigan Studios a reality in two words.

“It’s frustrating,” said Nelson, who is the chairman and chief executive officer.

However — sitting next to  Taubman Company founder Alfred Taubman and Walbridge CEO John Rakolta Jr. — Nelson said he and his investors never gave up on their dream to turn a former General Motors building into movie magic.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Taubman said. “A week didn’t go by that we didn’t have a meeting.”

The public will get its first look at the much-anticipated studio with a symbolical groundbreaking this evening. The studio is located at the General Motors Co. Counterpoint East Campus, 1999 Centerpointe Drive, south of South Boulevard in Pontiac.
The studio, first announced in early 2009, has gone through a gamut of financing. Renovations are now ongoing inside the building, while construction has started on a 185,000-square-foot addition.

Taubman and Rakolta were among the announced high-profile investors, as well as talent agent Ari Emanuel, brother of President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Also lending name value to the studio is Raleigh Studios, which has history going back to the earliest days of filmmaking and has operations in California; Baton Rouge, La.; and Budapest, Hungary.

In May, The Oakland County Economic Development Corp. authorized the issuance of $28 million worth of tax-exempt bonds.

The bonds were to help finance the studio, which will cost a little more than $80 million when it is completed...

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