Studio Suspended.

Driving down Highway 248, you sure don’t miss the new Park City Film Studio’s building. It’s 40 feet tall, framed of steel, and appears to be built to last, at least what’s been completed. What you may miss are the workers that are supposed to be constructing the facility. Where are they? Are they taking a week long lunch break? It’s a ghost town.

Two months ago it was common to see construction on Saturdays, with a big crane lifting steel as high as you could see. Now the only thing moving is a piece of plastic blowing in the wind. What’s going on?

The Park Record is reporting that Greg Ericksen, the Studio’s founder, says that “the pause” is “due to financial questions surrounding future tenants.” Future tenants like Raleigh Studios, the studio that was supposed to headline the establishment but said they would be willing to let some other studio take over if there were any takers? Or Future tenants like … any movie? Either way it doesn’t look good.

We’ve expressed our doubts since our article History says the movie studio will fail was published in May. There were a number of reasons evident in 2012 that should have cast doubt on this project and prevented Park City from approving the studio. At this point we would be remiss if we didn’t remind everyone how your City Council voted on this project:

Andy Beerman – Against

Alex Butwinski – For

Cindy Matsumoto – For

Dick Peek – Against

Liza Simpson – For

The Park City Planning Commission actually voted against it but that didn’t stop the City Council from moving forward. Oops.

Ericksen says this is only a temporary stoppage and that work will begin again in the “next couple weeks”. Let’s just say we are still doubtful that this project will turn into a success.

That leaves us hoping that Park City was smart enough to limit uses for this parcel of land. If the movie studio doesn’t work, it would stand to reason a developer would want to sell it for another use. We hope those possibilities don’t include a Family Dollar, a Motel 6, and a Souper Salad. We won’t hold our breathe, though.

It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Park City government. We thank them for the bang up job they are doing and are looking forward to dining at the Sizzler before our next softball game across the street at Quinn’s Junction.

Update: We’ve heard word from a couple of people that the workers were sent home a week or more ago due to lack of funds. The city says work stopped September 9. Why haven’t we heard about this before?