Rock Island-based Fresh Films is getting a $3.8-million state of Illinois grant to build a new $12-million production studio and sound stages in Rock Island County.
There were 15 applicants for the grants (from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity), and the Fresh Films grant scored the highest. Just three recipients were named Wednesday morning.
“To be chosen as one of three recipients in the state was really exciting, absolutely mind-blowing,” Estlin Feigley – who runs Fresh Films nationwide with his wife Kelli – said Tuesday. “This hopefully can be a little bit of an accelerant, a fire starter, so we can get the film industry here in Rock Island County.”
Fresh Films worked in collaboration with other local partners to showcase how combining the region’s unique locations and history with soundstage studio infrastructure will attract large-scale TV and film productions to this part of the state.
The studio will serve as a catalyst to diversify the local economy, not just in job creation for local talent but also in how it can attract professionals from the entertainment industry, spurring the growth of related businesses and services which adds to the overall financial health of the community, according to the grant application.
“The grant is an investment in economic growth, cultural enrichment, and community development, with far-reaching benefits for the Western Illinois region and for the State of Illinois,” Fresh Films said. “We look at this as an opportunity for all boats to rise as we partner together to benefit the region and its Illinois residents.”
In addition to grant projects in Chicago and Champaign, the $3,797,000 grant for Rock Island County will support construction of soundstages and related production support — including production offices, mill spaces and other facilities that attract and serve large-scale film and TV productions. The grant requires additional matching funds invested in the project, and a site is expected to be chosen in the next two to four months.
Fresh Films needs to raise over $8 million in the next two years, and Kelli Feigley said they plan to break ground by January 2025, looking at either redeveloping an existing building or building new.
The facility will include rooms for hair and makeup, production offices, production support spaces and a smaller training stage. The sound stage will need at least two or three employees devoted to it.
The new studio would have at least two 20,000-square-foot soundstages for large scale film and TV productions.
“We’ll be out talking to donors, investors and partners to make sure we can raise the rest of the funding to make the whole project a reality,” Kelli Feigley said Tuesday. “It’s so exciting that we hope people will get on board with the momentum.”
“To be selected and not be in Chicago is huge,” she said of the state grant. “To be in western Illinois, some people might say ‘Where’s that?’ but we all know in this community that there are huge opportunities here; that there’s been a lot of films shot here, and there is a lot of film history here.
“But you can’t bring the big productions here without a sound stage,” she said. “It will complement all the other awesome locations here.”
The establishment of a soundstage production facility in Rock Island County is an investment in economic growth, cultural enrichment, and community development, with far-reaching benefits for the region and for the State of Illinois, Fresh Films said.
The training and jobs at the studio would create economic mobility for local residents while building a pipeline of talent for the Illinois film industry. Such a facility would serve as a catalyst to diversify the local economy, not just in job creation for local talent but also in how it would attract professionals from the entertainment industry, spurring the growth of related businesses and services which add to the overall financial health of the community, the application said.
Peter Hawley, director of the Illinois Film Office, helped choose grant recipients.
“To be truly competitive as a film center, Rock Island and Moline have to have a film studio complex. This grant helps them get there,” he said Tuesday by email. One grantee had to be from outside of the Chicago area, he noted.
“Five years ago when applying for this job, I said to be competitive, we need more infrastructure – soundstages and entry-level crew,” Hawley said. “This grant and these new soundstages – plus our ongoing training program (Fresh films is a grantee there as well) – is making Illinois a very attractive place for film and TV productions.
“There was a recent economic impact study on the benefits of the Illinois film production tax credit,” he said, noting it showed a return on investment of almost $7 to each $1 of tax credits issued. “That is money that stays in the local economy.”
The state has an Illinois Film Production Tax Credit Act, offering producers a credit of 30% of all qualified expenditures, including post-production.
Kelli said Rock Island County could attract more productions since the state also offers an additional 15% tax credit on salaries of individuals (making at least $1,000 in total wages) who live in economically disadvantaged areas whose unemployment rate is at least 150% of the state’s annual average.
Having the new sound stage within the city of Rock Island could be advantageous to producers to qualify for greater tax credits, since more assistance is offered in census tracts that meet those income levels, Kelli said.
“We’re Rock Islanders now, and you look at the opportunity and what has been here,” she said.
Additional Fresh Films training and internships could be offered in the new facility.
