Celtic Media Centre

[drew6974]

Thanks for the website drew and for revving this up this thread again Hopefully they will start making some of those movies. BR makes for a nice focal point between Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, Emerald Coast beaches; not to mention the Big Easy, Cajun country, Plantation Country, and major universities.

Can't wait to see the cool looking 5-story building go-up in the middle of the Celtic Media Centre campus!

Wonder what will become of the old Coca-Cola plant next to Celtic; prime location Airline Hwy. at I-12! Adding to that something nice next door at the current site of the demolishished Plantation Inn.

My brother has a cool little movie clip he'd like to promote.

I definetly think the old coke site will be something related to the movie studio. It would be a great location for a new hotel for people making the movies with exposure to I-12 and the upgraded Airline Highway corridor. Maybe the reason we haven't heard anything from the W hotel lately??? Maybe they think this would be a better location for an upscale hotel, next to a movie studio. Just idle speculation, but I do think a hotel of some sort there would be a great fit.

[drew6974]

Celtic Media Center to begin work on it's fourth building, the "Rebecca Building." After it's completed work will begin on two more buildings which will include one of the largest sound stages in the world. The studio is up and running, having opened in October. I'm surprised there wasn't a lot of publicity when it opened. Two movies have been shot there already.

Here is the link to the story in the Advocate.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/15898342.html

Also, check out the revised website. Pretty impressive.

http://www.thecelticmediacentre.com/

[BRPJ]

wow i didnt even know there was anything being built at that location....

[richyb83]

Thanks Drew for revving this thread again This has been an interesting project I have been meaning to take more pics of. Your right; seem like there would be more publicity with Louisiana's 1st movie studio being built from the ground up?

The campus is in a perfect location near Airline & I-12 tucked away behind the old Coca-Cola plant that will relocate/expand near the airport; now Celtic Media Centre has more land to possibly work with?? Also the Plantation Inn was demolished nearby and should be even easier to re-develop!!

My only disapointment is the orginal plan/rendering has a nice looking 5-story office in the middle of the complex; looks like they scrapped that idea on the new website.

[richyb83]

Baton Rouge's 1st Movie Studio being built from the ground up(starting with Master P's old music studio)

There's been a name change in the street; formerly Mayfair Drive; it's now Celtic Drive. Celtic Media Centre continues to grow; soon this field will house one of the the largest studio's in the complex

The Rebecca bldg. went up quickly; even from the back of the Celtic complex the roof can be seen from the I-12-Airline Hwy. overpass A few more buildings about to get started will make this one seem small.

[cajun]

As far as all the new movie studios in Baton Rouge...those metal buildings sure are ugly...but there is no other way to have that much space with no pillars with such small cost.

http://www.thecelticmediacentre.com/

My prediction is that in the near future we will start seeing perkins-rowe type developments at these big studios that will house workers and their offices as well as double as sets...including city scapes, european style buildings, suburbia style areas, and maybe some other styles.

Universal city in Los Angles has this...and Celtic Media Centre is much, much smaller though....but the one proposed in West Baton Rouge is pretty close to that size.

If you have 500 people working in West Baton Rouge- you also get 500 people going downtown for drinks and what not since there isn't much in Port Allen.

[richyb83]

Raleigh Studios sets up at BR

[richyb83]

Louisiana's first from the ground-up movie studio continuing to expand!

Celtic Group acquires property

The Celtic Group continues to acquire property near its production studio near Interstate 12 and Airline Highway. Monday, Celtic Group purchased an 3,114-square-foot office building at 9854 Professional Boulevard for $245,000, or $78.68 per square foot. The sale was brokered by Scot Guidry with Sealy & Falgoust Real Estate. According to Guidry, there are no immediate plans for the building.

http://www.businessreport.com/archives/rea...-weekly/latest/

[richyb83]

^Related article...

Celtic Media adds unit

[dan326]

I want to know when those other two huge studios will start. Those will be great because I think they are taller than the warehouse that they arleady built so they should definetly been seen from the interstate.

[richyb83]

^That would be nice! Being able to see the studios/buildings from I-10 is important IMO! Wonder what will become of the old Coca-Cola property?? Maybe one day the campus can grow into a Media Village like Nashville is proposing??

I was impressed being able to see the largest building when driving north up Bluebonnet Blvd along the suburban garden offices(overlay district) about a mile way!

[richyb83]

More expansion for Celtic Media Centre?? Wonder what will become of the old 27-acre Coca-Cola property?? Prime location near I-12/Airline Hwy!

Celtic plans to buy old Red Cross building

The Celtic Media Centre is set to buy the former American Red Cross building across the street from its film studio complex. Bob Bayham, executive vice president and CFO for Celtic, says the deal should close at the end of the month. Bayham wouldn't disclose a sale price for the 17,000-square-foot building, citing confidentiality agreements. Plans are to use the building as production offices for tenants who are shooting movies or TV shows in town. "These would be leased on a short term basis, although there is one potential tenant that would be a long term lease," Bayham says. The Red Cross recently moved into a new office on Sherwood Commons Drive, which freed up the old space off Airline Highway. Celtic Media occupies a 23-acre site off Airline Highway, which has about 120,000 square feet of soundstages, offices and editing suites spread across six buildings. Battle: Los Angeles, a Columbia Pictures movie, is currently in pre-production at Celtic.

http://www.businessreport.com/news/2009/ju...cross-building/

[richyb83]

Battle: Baton Rouge.... Celtic gains Hollywood’s attention in campaign for film respectability

It’s been a long four years since the late Brendan O’Connor bought this reclamation project, then an abandoned concrete shell of what rap music recording star Master P once envisioned as a gymnasium, music studio, party place and hangout for friends and family.

Thirty million dollars and 17 raccoons later, Hollywood has spied the house that Brendan built. And Hollywood is here.

In July, Mayor-President Kip Holden beamed while announcing the arrival of “Battle: Los Angeles,” a film bringing the biggest movie budget in Baton Rouge history to the 23-acre Celtic Media Centre.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/70122302.html

[richyb83]

Celtic vies for next big film

“Battle: Los Angeles,” the Sony/Columbia Pictures movie filming in Baton Rouge throughout the fall, ends its production this week at Celtic Media Centre, which is in the hunt for an even bigger movie project.

“It’s between us and London,” said Patrick Mulhearn, director of operations for Raleigh Studios, which oversees movie production for Celtic. Success could depend on something as tricky as the exchange rate between the dollar and the British pound, he said, and the production would bring highly recognizable cast members.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/79112837.html

[dan326]

"Celtic to add soundstage, mill shop

The Celtic Media Centre, which played host to “Battle: Los Angeles” last fall, is breaking ground on a soundstage building and a mill shop with a combined development budget of $3.5 million, company officials said Monday.

Later this year, a studio backlot simulating the French Quarter, New York, Boston, Chicago and other cities, with street scenes, is expected to be completed for $1.1 million on more than three acres.

The 31,000-square-foot soundstage — at $2.2 million — would be the sixth for Celtic, bringing total interior shooting space to more than 127,000 square feet. The $1.3 million mill shop, used to build sets, will add more than 23,000 square feet"

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/85016372.html

[richyb83]

Good to see the Celtic Media Centre still growing

Cameras in Baton Rouge start rolling today on the city’s largest movie project to hit the stage.

Most of the filming for the titanic-sized “Battleship” will run for the next eight weeks at the Celtic Media Centre off Airline Highway near Interstate 12, said Ernie Malik, a publicity spokesman for the movie.

“Battleship” will spend some $70 million in Baton Rouge, based upon documents filed with Louisiana Entertainment, the arm of the state’s economic development division responsible for awarding tax credits to the films produced in Louisiana.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/business/105406698.html

[richyb83]

Wanted to revive this thread...

New visual effects studio to open at Celtic Media Centre

German visual effects company Pixomondo will open a Baton Rouge studio at Celtic Media Centre in May, company officials and Gov. Bobby Jindal announced this afternoon. The studio is expected to create 75 new direct jobs in film, TV and commercial production work. It will be 12th international studio for Pixomondo, which won an Oscar Sunday night for its work in Hugo. Pixomondo will occupy more than 6,000 square feet at Celtic Media Centre and make an initial capital investment of $1.2 million. The jobs it creates will have average annual salaries of $65,000, plus benefits, and the studio expects to be fully employed by the end of its second year in operation. The state began working with Pixomondo six months ago to gauge the company's interest in establishing a studio that could partner with major movie and TV productions in Baton Rouge and greater Louisiana. The Baton Rouge studio will work with Pixomondo's international locations on major projects that require around-the-clock production across different time zones. Project work will include visual effects for corporate campaigns as well as film and TV productions. Pixomondo is expected to use Louisiana's digital media and film production tax credits, as well as Louisiana Economic Development's FastStart workforce development program.

http://www.businessreport.com/article/20120229/BUSINESSREPORT0112/120229766/-1/daily-reportPM

[richyb83]

Movie post-production firm relocating to B.R. from Lafayette

Digital Post Services of Hollywood, a movie post-production company that previously had a small office in Lafayette, is relocating to the Celtic Media Centre in Baton Rouge this month. DPS of Louisiana, as the company is known in the state, will occupy nearly 2,700 square feet in the studio's Cypress Building, and will hire a still undetermined number of local employees to do the post-production work that goes into making a movie: editing, mixing and special effects. The move is significant because one of the shortcomings of the local film industry is its lack of post-production companies and facilities. "This is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle," says Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations at Raleigh Studios in the Celtic Media Centre. "It's a really impressive operation, and to have a company like this offering a soup-to-nuts approach to production is a very positive development for us." DPS will be occupying the space previously used in the production of Breakout Kings, an A&E network drama about the hunt for escaped fugitives that was canceled earlier this year.

http://www.businessreport.com/section/daily-reportAM

[richyb83]

Universal Pictures, which released two of the bigger movies filmed in Baton Rouge in recent years, has reserved space at Raleigh Studios in the Celtic Media Centre off Airline Highway from April to November.

 

http://theadvocate.com/news/business/5420804-123/universal-pictures-books-space-at

[richyb83]

Studio head rooting for Costco deal to close

Costco is interested in the former site of a Coca-Cola bottling facility off Airline Highway, and East Baton Rouge Parish officials are pushing for a tax increment financing district to help close the deal. Patrick Mulhearn, who directs studio operations for Raleigh Studios Baton Rouge at the nearby Celtic Media Centre, is among those hoping the deal goes through. He says Celtic already is leasing a building on the site, and Celtic tenant Pixomondo is moving in. "We have gone ahead and renovated it, with the understanding that we're going to be able to acquire it," Mulhearn says. The problem is that Celtic only is interested in about six or seven acres of land, but Coca-Cola wants to sell the approximately 26-acre tract all at once. If Costco buys the land, Mulhearn says, then Celtic could buy what it wants from Costco. Celtic may build a mill shop on the new property, where sets could be constructed and decorated. Universal Pictures has booked space at Raleigh for a possible big-budget film—the specifics have not been announced, although most observers assume it will be Jurassic Park 4—and the extra space could be useful for parking, Mulhearn says

Read more from Business Report here: http://www.businessreport.com/section/daily-reportPM#ixzz2S0FBzF32

[richyb83]

Crazy to think they were not already in BR...

 

Celtic wants to be annexed into Baton Rouge
 

Celtic Media Centre wants to take Metro Councilman John Delgado up on his offer to annex into the city of Baton Rouge any properties adjoining the city limits. Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations at Celtic, says the studio—which comprises about eight acres inside the city limits and 22 acres in unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish—has long wanted to be incorporated into the city limits. “Logistically, it would be so much easier for us, especially with respect to film production,” Mulhearn says. “When we are shooting, if the crews are on the Baton Rouge side we have to call the Baton Rouge Police Department and fire department. If they’re on the other side, we have to call the sheriff’s office and the St. George Fire Department.” Though more of the studio’s property is outside the city limits than inside, Mulhearn says Celtic wants to be part of the city of Baton Rouge—and not the proposed city of St. George—for reasons other than practical considerations. “I think [the St. George movement] sends the wrong message—that we’re a divided community,” he says. “We want to be a Baton Rouge studio.” Mulhearn says a previous attempt at annexation was deferred because the property adjacent to the studio, which will be the site of a new Costco, was re-subdivided. “That kind of just put everything on hold,” he says. “Now that Delgado has taken the lead on this, we’re going to get with him to see what we have to do to make it happen this time.” In response to annexation efforts by those behind the city of St. George effort, Delgado announced late last week that he plans to sponsor an ordinance to annex the properties of any qualified property owner in the unincorporated area of the parish who wishes to join the City of Baton Rouge. —Stephanie Riegel

 

http://www.businessreport.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=daily-reportAM&date=20131210

[dan326]

I wonder if they got slid some money under the table to say this...

[cajun]

I wonder if they got slid some money under the table to say this...

It's politically expedient to be in Baton Rouge....and the city maintains a better fire department (or at least a higher rated class 1 dept) which reduces insurance costs.

[timelordnerd]

Crazy to think they were not already in BR...

 

Celtic wants to be annexed into Baton Rouge

 

Celtic Media Centre wants to take Metro Councilman John Delgado up on his offer to annex into the city of Baton Rouge any properties adjoining the city limits. Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations at Celtic, says the studio—which comprises about eight acres inside the city limits and 22 acres in unincorporated East Baton Rouge Parish—has long wanted to be incorporated into the city limits. “Logistically, it would be so much easier for us, especially with respect to film production,” Mulhearn says. “When we are shooting, if the crews are on the Baton Rouge side we have to call the Baton Rouge Police Department and fire department. If they’re on the other side, we have to call the sheriff’s office and the St. George Fire Department.” Though more of the studio’s property is outside the city limits than inside, Mulhearn says Celtic wants to be part of the city of Baton Rouge—and not the proposed city of St. George—for reasons other than practical considerations. “I think [the St. George movement] sends the wrong message—that we’re a divided community,” he says. “We want to be a Baton Rouge studio.” Mulhearn says a previous attempt at annexation was deferred because the property adjacent to the studio, which will be the site of a new Costco, was re-subdivided. “That kind of just put everything on hold,” he says. “Now that Delgado has taken the lead on this, we’re going to get with him to see what we have to do to make it happen this time.” In response to annexation efforts by those behind the city of St. George effort, Delgado announced late last week that he plans to sponsor an ordinance to annex the properties of any qualified property owner in the unincorporated area of the parish who wishes to join the City of Baton Rouge. —Stephanie Riegel

 

http://www.businessreport.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=daily-reportAM&date=20131210

Wonder if this is still on the table? 

[richyb83]

Don't think the St. George proponents are to concerned with Celtic Media Centre being annexed into BR...Too many tax incentives anyway

 

 

Step aside, Hollywood: Louisiana is the new capital of the global film industry

 

http://digbatonrouge.com/theres-no-business-like-show-business/

 

http://digbatonrouge.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/03/filmboard-11.jpg