Business & Tech

Carpenter Tells Patch "We Are Alive and Moving Forward," No Action Plan Explained

After almost a year of promises, and silence since June, Carpenter speaks out with a statement answering questions Patch emailed to the Morning View president this morning.

The last time we heard about Morning View’s plan to build a movie studio in Dixon, the company was getting ready to offer $100,000 per acre of land to landowners, land that they would supposedly use to build the movie studio. However, since June, when Patch reported the story, a long silence has shadowed the status of Morning View’s proposed project.

In subsequent coverage of the proposed movie studio, including this blog by Dixonite Bil Paul, organizer Carissa Carpenter has not given much in the way of definitive plans of turning the studio into reality in Dixon. In fact, no one seems seems to know if the studio is going to happen or not in Dixon.

Dixon Patch asked Carpenter, today, why she has been silent about the movie studio, if she has moved on or has given up on the project and if the Sacramento Bee articles have hurt her progress in bringing the studio to Dixon.

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Carissa Carpenter answered those questions with the following statement:

“We are still alive and well and moving forward as always. However the one side stories of the Sac Bee have slowed us down a bit. As planned we have added developers and are taking their lead in our goal to get our doors open. No person, family lender bank or anyone I know of wants a one sided story with a goal of to kill a company and jobs and credibility.”

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It would seem that the project is still in the works, and that Carpenter is confident that the movie studio can be built in Dixon, according to her answers. But many of the principal people on the Dixon side say that Carpenter has not been saying much about it.

City Manager Jim Lindley told the Patch that he hasn’t heard from Carpenter for “quite awhile.” Although he didn’t elaborate about how long ago he communicated with Carpenter, Lindley indicated he had not had any meaningful update on Morning View and its plans.

The Morning View saga has been a veiled by countless unanswered questions, including who the unnamed investors could be, why have there been so many unexplained location changes, and has credibility of the company and its president been built up enough to support the 500-plus-acre project in Dixon?

In the quest for answers, here are five definitive statements Carissa Carpenter has made to Dixon Patch in the last year.

  • October 15, 2012: In regards to Measure N that was indeed voted down with a 69.23% no vote. “If the voters reject it by a wide margin they we will hit the ground running Nov. 7th.”
  • March 19, 2013: Carpenter announced Morning View has signed letters of intent with landowners whose property total more than 300 acres. (This was later more than 500 acres)
  • May 7, 2013: Today, we have the acreage under contract and our lenders are reviewing our plans for opening our studio doors January 15, 2015.
  • June 7, 2013: Carpenter confirmed the offers had expired, telling Dixon Patch “But we got them extended and we’re fine. We’re on the seventh or eighth round with attorneys.” 
  • June 19, 2013: “We will be offering city land owners $100,000 per acre, hopefully by next week. We are not done, we are not going away, the negativity has reinforced our enthusiasm about our project, not scared us off.”

We will continue to follow the developments with the movie studio and post updates on the Patch. What are your thoughts about the movie studio project in Dixon?


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