Plugged In: Creativity chews away at the old Wrigley Plant [GoodTimes]
By Christa Martin

For months now, controversy has swirled around the proposed occupants of the old Wrigley Plant on the Westside of Santa Cruz. The big-box home improvement store, Lowe´s, had already left town before it moved in, much to the relief of residents nearby.

“Lowe´s needed too much space and needed too much change in the buildings,” says George Ow, Jr. whose Ow Family Properties owns the massive warehouse site, dubbed University Business Park, LLC, in conjunction with his business partner Harvey Glasser.

It´s been more than clear that the community is not rooting for anything big-box oriented to fill the space. So what do people want? How about a business that provides jobs to techie types? A place where film and video producers and artists can gather as a community and get their work done? Or maybe a one-stop shop for production companies rolling through town? It´s possible.

A pair of storage tenants at the site has big ideas for what the old warehouse could hold: think Pixar, or George Lucas´ Skywalker Ranch, with a Surf City twist. That, in essence, is the big picture. But for now, the duo, Marty Collins (a filmmaker) and David Hodges (in real estate) will start by showcasing what their company, Santa Cruz Teleport Media Center, is capable of. And it´s capable of a lot—blossoming into something that would be the first of its kind in this area— something that will set film and television producers and artists, actors, the music community, techie types and others abuzz. If the Santa Cruz Teleport Media Center goes full force, it will, in conjunction with the Santa Cruz Film Festival and Cinemar, enable Santa Cruz County to be identified as a filmmaking and educating bastion.

Subletting a portion of a 5,000-square-foot space, the pair plans to have a blue screen and a stage up within two weeks, turning their storage space into a sort of open house, available for perusal by people interested in checking out the “vision.” As they set up camp, services will quickly become available, including: special FX, cover sets (when a production gets rained out and needs to build a set indoors) and editing. Education, workshops and more are within the plans of the Santa Cruz Teleport Media Center, whose new home, for the time being, is in the old Wrigley Plant. And Collins and Hodges are convinced the building is perfect for their plans, plans that are sparking curiosity and interest from other locals who walk on the creative sides of things.

Just last week the two men gave a tour of the premises to producer Chris Cooney of Stickperson, a Santa Cruz production company, and Ian McRae, a renowned local acting teacher.

“For me it means if I produce a movie that I can come to Marty … and get that movie distributed without going to Hollywood and deal with that whole juggernaut,” Cooney says. “For me as an artist that´s great. It means more people seeing my work … without having to shop it around manually.”

He´d be able to do this because the Santa Cruz Teleport Media Center can serve as a distribution center for digital films; in addition a film can be distributed via fiber and satellite technology and through the Internet. (Currently the building has huge fiber capabilities with the potential of adding a satellite to complete the teleport center.)

For Hollywood this might be considered a nightmare, because this type of technology changes how the game is played down in Southern California. But for indie movie and television producers it´s the actualization of a dream: an opportunity to make movies cheaper and without dealing with the Hollywood hassle. It is the boom of a new era. It empowers the individual producers, Collins explains.

“There is a paradigm shift happening in the entertainment industry in the media, a shift from analog to digital, and that redefines the way in which entertainment or education product is going to be distributed to the masses,” Hodges says. “With a teleport media center you could take a product and distribute it across the world in a digital format instantaneously.”

Additionally, opportunities that could exist for hands-on artists would include educational workshops for movie and television producers and students from the university, as well as classes for actors and other film types. It will also provide a community, a synergy, if you will, a hub for cinematic sorts.

“It sounds incredible to me,” McRae says, gazing around the empty space. “For me to have an acting studio in a big family like this would certainly help me … and spur on my students knowing there´s something bigger out there that they don´t have to look at New York or Los Angeles.”

Collins explains that the Santa Cruz Teleport Center will not be a Tinseltown remake, but instead a hybrid of Hollywood, offering anything that would be found on a motion picture and television studio lot, with the perks of cutting edge digital technology, combined with providing jobs and services to locals and those passing through.

“A teleport is really a telecommunications center and that kind of technology provides to businesses like the entertainment business, but it´s only one of many types of revenue streams that could do business at that facility,” Collins says. “Instead of putting retail jobs in, it would bring technology jobs in, engineering or high tech jobs, producing and servicing digital media.”

And Cooney is convinced that, “A lot of people are ready for this and need this as a creative space.” If he´s right, then the camera lens just might be turning on Santa Cruz. Keep watching for more details.

For more details about the Santa Cruz Teleport Media Center, call 427-2941.

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