Thursday, February 07, 2008 Bigfoot project at SRP
THE first company to invest in the 290-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) hopes to complete the first phase of a film-making facility by September this year.
Bigfoot Properties Inc. chief architect Ma. Sarah Abadia said work on the first phase, which includes sound stages, is more than 30 percent complete. She added that sound stages are targeted to be opened by July.
Abadia also said the company hopes to have the sound stages fully operational by September.
Apart from the sound stages, Bigfoot will be building production offices, dressing rooms and suites, a fabrication and mill building (for props and slide sets), as well as camera and equipment rooms.
“It would look like Universal Studios,” Abadia said, adding that the facility will also accommodate tourists, like the one in the United States.
She said Bigfoot will also build a hotel on the two-hectare property it is leasing for 25 years from the Cebu City Government.
She said the company is finalizing the design for the hotel, which will have — according to the initial plan — 200 rooms.
Abadia said the hotel will only be six stories high because it will rise on reclaimed land.
“If we want to go higher, we will have to discuss it with the structural engineer,” she said.
Prime location
She said Bigfoot wanted to develop a bigger area at the SRP, particularly at the seafront, but the company has adopted a wait-and-see attitude pending the resolution on the claim made by Talisay City over a portion of the SRP.
During the project’s groundbreaking in May last year, Bigfoot Entertainment chief operating officer Matt Lubetich said the company considers SRP as a prime location.
He said the company considers Cebu as an investment location because of the presence of “world-class human resource pool,” the Cebuanos’ proficiency in the English language, adequate telecommunication facilities and accessibility.
Lubetich had said Bigfoot poured about $3 million for its project at the SRP.
He said the entire development will look like Hollywood, complete with neon lights, colorful billboards, restaurants, boutiques and sidewalk shops.
Bigfoot also owns a film-making facility in Lapu-Lapu City, which will remain to be in use but only for smaller productions, said Abadia.
Bigfoot Entertainment is the parent firm of Bigfoot Productions, Bigfoot Production Services, the International Academy of Film and Television, Bigfoot Partners and Bigfoot Soundworks. (LAP)
