AURORA – Geauga Lake has sat vacant for years, but steps have been taken to transform the old amusement park into a potential sound stage setting for movie production.
At Cleveland Comic Con, Ivan Schwarz, director of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, said they are working on legislation to raise the motion picture tax incentive from $25 million to $75 million per year. Lawmakers will take a look at the legislation this spring.
According to Midwest Movie Maker, “the Ohio Film Tax Credit provides for a refundable credit against the corporation franchise or income tax for motion pictures produced in Ohio. The tax credit is equal to 25 percent of non-wage and nonresident wage Ohio production expenditures and 35 percent of Ohio resident wage production expenditures. Up to $5 million in credits is available per production.”
Schwarz said the area would also need production-ready sound stages, which he is trying to build. One of the locations being considered? Geauga Lake.
“If we get those built, we could potentially bring $600 million into the economy a year,” he told Midwest Movie Maker. “Then we can start to talk about the thousands of jobs we would create, too.”
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Article Courtesy of WKYC Channel 3 News Cleveland
Picture Courtesy of Johnny Joo, Architectural Afterlife and WKYC Channel 3 News Cleveland
