The University of Hawaii is expected to announce today that it has selected a private developer to design, build, finance and operate a more than $100 million film and television production studio planned next door to UH West Oahu’s campus in Kapolei.
Following an October deadline for submissions,
Island Film Group — touted as a diverse partnership with local, national and international experience in film studio commercial development and operations — was chosen in January as the project’s developer, UH says.
The future private film studio — to be built and operated without taxpayer dollars — will be constructed on an undeveloped, 34-acre site adjacent to the Skyline rail station. The parcel is bordered by Farrington Highway, Kualakai Parkway, the UH West Oahu campus and the Hawaii Tokai International College campus.
At that site, Island Film
envisions a multipurpose entertainment campus for studio employees, consisting of a public-serving town square with live-work, retail, dining, lodging and office space, along with a private, secured film studio that would include modern soundstages and other
support facilities, UH says.
“I’m very excited,” UH President David Lassner told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone. “It’s a complicated process to identify somebody to take on a project
like this, but I’m excited that we’ve reached this point, and I’m excited about the
opportunity that it represents for Hawaii, for West Oahu in general and for UH West Oahu in particular.”
He added that the “lack of high-quality film studios has been identified as a significant barrier to having more productions in Hawaii.”
“And more productions means more employment, and these are all really great jobs,” he said. “And I think that is a sector that we really have an amazing opportunity to grow, and it’s clean, with high-quality jobs both for talent and for primarily unionized labor who work on productions.”
Lassner said he was most excited that the future film studio will be located adjacent to the $37 million Academy for Creative Media Student Production Center at UH West Oahu, which opened in 2022.
“So the expectation that we have for the developer is that we will have a robust set of opportunities for students to engage in internships, on-the-job training, to get direct, hands-on experience, which would be a lot harder if the studio were not colocated with our campus, where we have our beautiful, new academic ACM building,” he said. “So it’s kind of a marriage made in heaven.”
According to UH, proposed developer Island Film Group includes SHM Partners, Hawaii Media Inc. and CR50 Production Ventures. The group was selected based on its response to the “invitation to submit proposals” UH issued in June, the university says.
The final deal between UH and the hui is not yet a done deal, however.
UH says it will first begin “exclusive negotiations” with Island Film in order to hammer out the actual terms of
a development agreement and long-term ground lease, which must then be reviewed and approved by the UH Board of Regents.
As part of that anticipated agreement, the developer will design, build, finance, operate, manage and maintain the project for the life of the long-term ground lease. Ownership of that lease — which Lassner said could be decades long — would revert back to UH when it expires.
Both sides hope to complete negotiations in a year’s time, UH says.
For ACM’s founder and
Director Chris Lee, the prospect of having a full-fledged film studio built on Oahu has been decades in the making.
“It’s only taken 20 years,” Lee told the Star-Advertiser by phone, noting that ACM was founded in 2004. “But as a professional who’s always believed in Hawaii becoming a production hub … I’m thrilled to see this development happen.”
He added as far as Island Film is concerned, “they are a very established production entity here on the island.”
“They’ve been involved in both independent and studio films, and they have production facilities already,” Lee said, adding that SHM Partners “has built studios around the world.”
He said private development of a film studio will benefit UH and the community
at large. “It’s one of the most important aspects of this — it’s all private equity, private funds, it’s not tax dollars.”
Lee said initial investment for the project’s first phase will likely be up to “$125 million to begin with,” adding that the film studio will cover the entire 34-acre site. “People will be very impressed when they see it.”
A new film studio could add to the roughly $400 million in annual revenue that film and TV productions shot here already contribute to Hawaii’s economy, he said.
“I think it’s a billion-dollar industry for the state,” Lee said.
He said past TV and film productions here have been constrained by the lack of physical infrastructure — namely state-of-the-art production studios.
Currently, the state-owned Hawaii Film Studio, located on a gated 7.5-acre lot at the foot of Diamond Head Crater, is home base for the TV series “NCIS: Hawaii.”
“But it can only accommodate one television show at a time,” Lee said.
The other existing studio site is based inside the state-operated World War
II-era Kalaeloa Airport hangars in West Oahu, which have been home to the “Magnum P.I.” show, among other productions.
The old hangars, however, are inadequate, he said.
“They’re not soundproof, they’re not air-conditioned, they’re on an active airfield, so they’re not ideal,” Lee said, saying many large studio films “can come here because they need to shoot our jungles and beaches and our natural topography, but the bulk of their work is going to be on stages” that are found in other locations around the globe.
“They go back to L.A., Atlanta, London, Montreal, and we want them to stay here,” he said. “Because the bulk of the shooting is going to be on those stages, and the bulk of what goes into that shooting, which is all of that set construction and visual effects and hair and makeup and costumes and all these tertiary industries that grow up around a true studio complex — that’s the stuff we’re not getting; we’re only getting a part of the pie.”
Ultimately, the UH president asserts this project will be a game-changer for Hawaii.
“Besides the obvious economic benefit that I think
everybody in the state has agreed on, we’ve been stymied at taking the actions needed to grow the industry, of which this is an important step,” Lassner said. “But it’s also a way for the people of Hawaii to tell our stories — Native Hawaiians, in particular.
“But all of the cultures that make up the richness of Hawaii have strong oral traditions and great histories,” he added. “And the more we can educate our students to be able to tell those stories, I think the more we can educate all of Hawaii, and the world, about who we are as a people.”
Meanwhile, the Honolulu City Council continues to review a parallel city measure introduced in 2023 by Council member Augie Tulba — and backed by Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration — which intends to draw more film studio development to Oahu.
If adopted, Bill 59 would provide greater real property tax incentives for eligible film studio facilities to move here — at least those willing to spend a minimum of $100 million toward local improvements.
Amendments to the bill include seeing film studios established on a minimum 10-acre property for a five-year period or upon issuance of a certification of completion by the city Department of Planning and Permitting, among other
requirements.
The Council’s Committee on Budget is expected to further review Bill 59 at its 9 a.m. meeting today, inside Honolulu Hale’s Council Chambers.
