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.
Are you the same Eddue Taranova who was employed by Ms. Carpenter as her limo driver for several months? Are you the same person who stole $50,000 from her, committed assault on her daughter and Carpenter while attempting to extort additional funds from her, and who is the subject of the open FBI file in San Francisco as a three time identity theft felon? I find it odd that Ms. Carpenter has all of these supposed legal actions pending against her or allegedly committed fraud and yet she is still public with her presence unlike you. I also saw similar comments from you as "Eddue" Taranova in the Vallejo Independent Bulletin. Perhaps you can explain to me how it is that Ms. Carpenter could be present and available to authorities in Fairfield, Vallejo, and Dixon yet no action is taken. If there is any person we in Dixon need to "Beware" of, it is you ...
As for the SW developer comment, many of them left not because of the costs (there were 5 developers) but because the residential housing market crashed and there was no demand for their product. Carpenter is well aware that they will have to provide sewer, water, and infrastructure such as roads as well as contribute to the Parkway Blvd overpass.
This is old news and as Michael C. aka "The Great Libertarian" tells us the accusations are with out merit. If they were true the Mayor or the Chief of Police would have stopped the deal. Everyone that needs to know about this info knows and has known for more than a month. Should we believe everything we read on the internet?
Editor of the “Stanford Daily” 1964 Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1966 and Yale later. Lieutenant in the United States Army, including service in Vietnam. Elected to the California State Legislature in 1978 to represent the states 20th Assembly District Elected Assembly Republican Leader Chairman of the California Republican Party Appointed by President Bush to the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation Chair of the Stanford Mansion Foundation Founding director of Calnet Business Bank in Sacramento Delegate to ten Republican National Conventions Launched his own firm in 2011 called Robert W. Naylor Advocacy Robert Naylor has a solid background.
I have done a lot of reading and understand a lot of what is going on. Though I would not claim to be an expert..... When you say companies are fleeing California remember that one very large film company had plans to build a facility within the last year in Northern California. What does not add up does in fact if your read a lot about how the industry is driven and how decissions are made there. It is no longer a creative process.
Their is a reason she chooses small towns for this scam.... Everyone gets blinded by "Hollywood" coming to town and don't do their do diligence... Idiots
They will be working on indoor Sound Stages located behind an Ag buffer, no issues there. I don’t know why it would become a “congestion magnet”. It was explained to me that they want isolation…and if there is nothing to see why would it become a magnet? I think we will learn a LOT more once they own the land and it is rezoned. There is little out there because the foot print has not be finalized yet. Once that is done we should see the plan unfold.
Maxine go downtown dixon at about 5 pm the corners A st. and 1st st thats congestion. as for a prominent location your wrong both gas stations have changed names so many times in the last 5 yrs i have lost count, Los altos restauraunt sold and since then it's on its 3rd owner as well, dont forget about a very PROMINENT RESTAURAUNT CHAIN CALLED KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN.....GONE as well and the new place that took over the building they are not doing well either, not to mention my wife and I are upside down in our home off of rehrmann dr. and many of our neighbors gone as well. Carmichael Craig your stupid comments about being Hicks and getting screwed by the republicans and blinded tells about you mentality.
Thank you for your comments. It is nice to hear from others that see the project for what it is. It is interesting to read some of the comments and know that they have not researched both sides of the deal….. Soon it will all be out on the table for us to see and then hopefully people will be able to relax about it a bit.
We will all have to work together to get this through the approval process. The Studio will help us out in the future, no need to hold them hostage now. They will be paying taxes and when they profit we will profit with them.