Move Over Hollywood

By Barbara Ryan Harris

ike the legendary phoenix, a new born Ldevelopment will be rising from the ashes of

St. Marys’ old paper mill and on the drawing board are plans for entertainment facilities that would make Hollywood jealous.

In a recent interview with Peter Chesney, one of the world’s most prolific film special effects experts, he talks about the vision set forth by mill property owner Jim Jacoby and how

Chesney plans to help make that vision come to life.

“We’ve spent a great deal of time studying the best use of what we feel is St. Marys’ most valuable real estate resource,” Chesney said.

“Plans are underway for a marina and a residential/hotel/vacation rental/ retail complex but what I’m most excited about is our plan to build a state-of-the-art marine film studio.”

He continued, “With Georgia’s ultra-attractive film & music production tax incentives, we’re confident we can draw major projects from all over the world.”

Chesney says there will be no competition on continued ...

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the east coast, especially considering the main attraction—the biggest film tank in North America.

“You can see it from space –(Google Earth),” Chesney said.

The current design uses the 10-million-gallon tank as 300 feet across (that’s a football field, you know) and will be half above ground and half below for surface and depth filming.

In addition to filming use, the tank would be an excellent dive check-out facility—one of the best in the country according to Chesney.

This is not Chesney’s first marine adventure with Jacoby. He has worked on several design and early master planning projects including one of Jacoby’s numerous massive ventures, Marineland, over the past 6 years between films..

In 1998, Jacoby acquired the aging Marineland property just south of St. Augustine, Florida. Originally built in 1938 to film underwater scenes and movies, Marineland morphed into a

Florida tourist attraction featuring aquatic life exhibits and dolphin shows. After it was damaged by a hurricane, Jacoby acquired the dolphin attraction as well as related real estate and redeveloped the entire park to a modern dolphin facility focused on continued ...

Film tank from space.

Marineland.

education and animal/human interaction. Marineland reopened in 2006 with new programs and experiences available to the public. Jacoby has since sold the property, but aqua entertainment never left his mind.

Jacoby sees a parallel with the upcoming marine studio in St. Marys.

“Though designed as a commercial marine film facility, we see an enormous opportunity to develop eco-marine tourism and engaging educational exhibit spaces,” Jacoby said. “We plan to work with universities that have similar interests and would like to put marine science on the property as well.”

Chesney and Jacoby both agree that the 1298-acre mill site is a prime aquatic property with its proximity to the ocean, the intracoastal waterway, several rivers, Cumberland Island, and a backdrop of expansive salt marsh vistas.

“The North River is 18 feet deep at low tide which means we can dock tall ships here for filming,” Chesney said. “Many film studios use scale “parts” of tall ships or CGI for their movies but we can have the real thing.”

Chesney is known in the industry for creating bigger than life scenery as he did in “Honey I shrunk the kids” when he built a 12-foot ant that miniaturized the people rather than using computer trickery. He’s also created junk yard “claws” that can grab speeding cars, 20-foot bees that actors ride and created more theatrical film “illusions” than he can count—all under the umbrella of his company “Image Engineering.”

Now headquartered in California, Chesney has already moved a good portion of his equipment to the St. Marys Airport property and will be

12-foot ant.

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Chesney’s collaboration with Jacoby (who developed the highly successful Atlantic Station in Atlanta) will be a prime example of “the whole being equal to greater than the sum of its parts.”

With their combined vision, Jacoby’s gift for optimizing the potential of real estate, and Chesney’s relentless dedication to engineering and performance perfection, the “Phoenix-rising” Marine Film Studio is bound to be a success.

“It’s going to be a movie magnet for any film with water scenes in their production,” Chesney said. But beyond the big screen, the developed facility will be a natural for reality series and there is a vision for that as well.

Jacoby can see a popular environmental scientist character coming to life in a locally-filmed series that could interest Netflix, Amazon, or Apple TV. He envisions a reality fishing show supported by one of the other major fishing entities. He wants to bring a nationally-recognized fishing tournament to town. Film tourism, eco-tourism, and even music tourism can be the rewarding results of the upcoming development. An envisioned outdoor theatre and research resort would add to the filming value and draw visitors to our community as well.

“We’re cross-collateralizing our investment,” Jacoby said.

“Bees.”

Camden County Film Commissioner Doug Vaught heralds the planned film studio and its associated components as a giant leap in the economic development of downtown St. Marys and Camden County.

“This opens the door to unparalleled opportunities in the worlds of entertainment, tourism, and the marine industry,” said Vaught. “With the assistance of our local economic and governmental organizations including the Joint Development Authority, Camden County, and the City of St. Marys, we can look to the future with renewed optimism.”

When you put together an Award-winning film engineer and a renowned land developer, St. Marys is standing by, waiting for the magic to begin.

Move over Hollywood! St. Marys is getting ready to take her rightful place in the entertainment world.

More FilM News

FroM Coastal GeorGia FilM alliaNCe

Local film producer Dave Webb continues his filming of the full-length feature movie “The Key” in his studio on the airport property and in residences in the community.

A recent filming of a commercial for 21 Queen Street Coffee Company facilitated by CGFA co-founder and Camden County Film Commissioner Doug Vaught.