Is Hollywood Coming to Dixon?

Is Hollywood coming to Dixon?

As of now, the first step in that direction lies in the hands of seven to 13 land owners in town. At a meeting Thursday afternoon, land owners met with representatives from real estate developer Carissa Carpenter to discuss questions in an open forum style meeting.

Read Bil Paul's blog on the subject here: . 

Carissa Carpenter has proposed a 480-acre Hollywood style movie studio, built to house a large, undisclosed major motion picture production company, in the land between Batavia Road and Pitt School Road, south of A Street. They need a minimum of 300 acres to seal the deal, which mean at least seven owners would have to agree to sell.

With mixed emotions from parcel owners, a major question was funding. “We just want to know the funding is coming from a reliable source, and that we are dealing with a credible buyer,” said landowner Jim Hawthow. “We want something in writing that shows if we all agree to sell you have the financial backing to buy.”

Carpenter assured him: “We have the investor funding. We want to make a fair and balanced deal for everyone and don’t want people to feel like we are stealing their land.”

Carpenter is not new to these negotiations. She said the company has “been trying to secure land for this property for more than 10 years."

"Our investors have been very patient with us in this time,” she added. The City of Vallejo (Mare Island), Sutter County, and Patterson are just a few areas where the project has already been proposed.

Not all landowners had reservations about selling. Owner Bill Schroader said, “I’m all for it. It’s a good offer for us and for Dixon. If they build residential on it, there will be developer fees to the city, but that’s it, this is light industrial and it will support itself.”

“Let's not cripple over this," said Bill Clark, who owns a 20-acre parcel. "We could wait for more than 10 years for our property values to go up and get more money, or we can take this good offer now and live well for the next 10 years. We lost UC Davis and Dixon Downs. This time we need to step up as a whole Dixon and take the offer.”

Mayor Jack Batchelor explained about moving forward: “Once all of the property has been finalized the City will work hard to bring forth this project to work. There will be public forums, council meetings, impact committees and lots of opportunity for the public to learn about the project.”

He also states he is “cautiously optimistic” when asked if he feels this project will be met with the same public resistance that held the Dixon Downs racetrack back.

Will there be bright lights, film crews and Hollywood A-listers in Dixon’s future? Is it too good to be true?

Right now we can only wait and see if these property owners are ready to sell.

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