Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
A venue for producing feature-length films could be coming to the River Valley.
Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority trustees unanimously approved Thursday selling 20 acres and four buildings to Los-Angeles-based TGE Global Entertainment to develop a $30 million movie production studio in the Chaffee Crossing area in Fort Smith, the authority’s marketing director Lorie Robertson said Friday.
J. Michael Smith, chief financial officer for TGE, said in a news release the potential facility, planned to be named TGE Spark Studios, would be the only one of its kind in a 550-mile radius and could create about $32 million annually in economic impact in the Fort Smith community. However, he noted this is a preliminary estimate ahead of final projections.
“The economic purpose for a studio like Spark Studios is not just to house our projects, but projects from other production companies with a desire to film in Arkansas,” Smith said.