Developer Orco Investment Kft will soon begin construction on a large film studio in Rákospalota, Dictrict XV, Napi Gazdaság reports.
The project has been in the pipeline for some years, but experienced delays as the original location, a Ganz shipyard on the Népsziget island, was dropped in favor of the current 15,000-hectare site, nearly twice as big in size.
The new studio will join two other large film production facilities recently completed in Hungary, Stern Film Studios in Pomáz and the larger Korda Studios in Etyek, both on the outskirts of the Hungarian capital. While the fortunes of the domestic film industry continue to decline, the projects have been spurred by government incentives aimed at making Hungary a center for the production of foreign films.
The Luxembourg-based Orco Group has previously developed a range of office and other properties in Hungary.
Origo Filmstúdió Hungary Motion Picture Production Kft, the main contractor for the project, was set up in December 2004 with Ft 196.7 million (€760,000) registered capital. The company was recently renamed Origo Filmstúdió Motion Picture Production Zrt.
Among its founders and managers are a number of high-profile Hungarian business and film industry executives, such as real estate developer István Kovács, owner of Provax Invest Kft, producer Gábor Varga, former co-owner of Filmplus Motion Picture Production Kft, and Ádám Terták, former head of Ernst & Young Hungary and ITDH Kht.
According to the plans, due to be laid out in detail at the end of February, the studio complex will include eight workshops of up to 25-27 meters in height, storage buildings and production offices with total floor space of 40,000 square meters.
Total cost of the investment is estimated at about Ft 12 billion, part of which the owners plan to raise from state-sponsored loans.