Ready for a Close-up

Albuquerque Studios Ushers in New Era of NM Film

By Scott Blair

New Mexico's film industry entered a new era in January with the
opening of the first phase of Albuquerque Studios, a $74 million
movie studio at Mesa del Sol.

advertisement

Developed by Albuquerque-based Union Development Corp., the project was ushered into reality with an aggressive incentive program from the state's economic development office.

"It was one of the best incentive programs ever initiated for the film industry and all of the parties funding the project were extremely excited about the possibility of building an industry here," says Nick Smerigan, chief operating officer of Albuquerque Studios. "We believe both the state and local governments are very interested in building an industry, rather than a situation that would come and go like it does in Canada."

Once the site was identified and financing secured, developers wanted the studio opened as soon as possible, which led to an extremely tight timeline.

"We needed to go through two different city approvals on entitlements and then get our building permit, and we did it on a piece of property that was not zoned correctly, or platted or subdivided," says Jim Trump, president of Union Development Co. "The City of Albuquerque and Mayor Chavez's efforts were unbelievable to help us meet our construction schedule."

The project wasn't officially design build, but the construction team, including Albuquerque-based architect Dekker/Perich/Sabatini and contractor Jaynes Structures, used many of the same techniques. "We worked with Jaynes from the very beginning as far as scheduling and budget issues because it was such a short time frame," said Christopher Gunning, AIA, with Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. "They ended up ordering their steel before we hardly had the building designed."

Other long-lead items were ordered before the July construction start date.

"Even before we were closed on the property, they suggested we purchase concrete and steel because those prices were going to go up," Smerigan says.

"That's what's allowed us to move forward at such a rapid rate."

Phase one included four buildings: Two large 76,000-sq-ft buildings will contain two 24,000-sq-ft stages each, plus 25,000 sq ft of office space. The third building contains two 18,000-sq-ft stages and 22,500 sq ft of office space.

The fourth structure houses a 78,000-sq-ft warehouse space to store sets and an 8,000 sq ft central chiller plant. However, each stage has its own electrical system. "We have 6,400 amps of three-phase power on the stages so that they can support the lighting equipment that is necessary to do filming," Smerigan says.

Albuquerque-based McDade Woodcock was the electrical contractor on the project.

The stages feature slab-on-grade foundations and are comprised of tilt-up concrete panels. The office portion uses a structural steel frame.

"The concrete panels are, from what we understand, the largest that have ever been placed in New Mexico," says Barry Tulk, preconstruction manager and estimator with Jaynes. The largest panel was slightly over 75 ft-tall, 20 ft-wide and 11.5 in.-thick, the large size dictated by the need for 55-ft clear heights in the finished studios for maximum flexibility in set design.

"One of the biggest factors was making sure there was a crane available in the right time period," Tulk adds. A 300-ton crawler crane was used for raising the 110-ton panels.

Over 13,600 cu yds of concrete was used on the project. "We started numerous pours at 2 a.m. just so we could get the amount of trucks needed per day to meet our schedule," Tulk says. The site was only accessible by one road at the time of construction, so daytime traffic woes made the night pours essential.

Steel trusses span up to 180 ft to support the 4-in. concrete deck roof and rigging systems to hang lights and sets from. "We bowed the top of the trusses, mostly because a lot of the older movie studios in Califonia have those old bow-string trusses," Gunning says. "We thought it would be cool to recognize that some of the form of this building is evocative of those historic studios."

The project's steel subcontractors were Bernalillo, N.M.-based AmFab Inc. and Lubbock,Texas-based W & W Steel.

An exhaust system was installed in each studio to handle any smoke or other fumes caused by stunts during filming. "It has to be exhausted in a reasonable amount of time, which for us is 25 minutes to totally change the air in the 24,000-sq-ft space," Smerigan says.

The next phase at the studio is already being planned. "We are pricing two more 18,000-sq-ft stages, and two 100,000-sq-ft, four-story office buildings," Trump says.

In addition, Smerigan says he has had several discussions with the University of New Mexico about a possible film school at the site.


Key Players

Developer: Union Development Co
Owner: Pacifica Ventures
Architect: Dekker/Perich/Sabatini
General Contractor: Jaynes Structures
Electrical: McDade Woodcock
Mechanical: Yearout Mechanical
Steel: AmFab; W & W Steel
Other: Western States Fire Protection; Franklin's Earthmoving