ESTES PARK – Blumhouse Productions LLC, the corporate production giant of horror films and franchises such as Get Out, Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Purge and Paranormal Activity, will be the exclusive curator of Stanley’s yet-to-be-developed film showcase. Downtown Stanley Hotel, which holds a special place in horror history as the inspiration for Stephen King’s novel “The Shining. “
The Stanley Hotel, which will be sold next month through its former owner to a nonprofit in Arizona as part of a deal that will complete the long-planned film center there, is “sacred ground for horror enthusiasts and that makes this presence at the Stanley Film Center an herbal extension of Blumhouse. “Jason Blum, CEO of Blumhouse, said in a statement: “Fans will be getting closer than ever to their favorite movies and may wish to stay away from some of the ‘items’ in our collection. We can’t wait to get down to business, but first we want to get out of the hedge maze.
The Stanley Film Center, which, according to its website, “will be the permanent home of the film, entertainment and horror genre” and will highlight the key role Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation “The Shining” played in horror history, is priced at $70. museum. A million-dollar effort that began in 2015 with a quick start in the form of millions of dollars in public tax incentives for tourism.
Development of the museum and interactive film center, which has received several more public financing boosts over the years, has been hampered by construction delays, cost increases and the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially shut down the hospitality industry for several months in 2020.
However, the upcoming sale of Grand Heritage Hotel Group to Community Finance Corp. , an Arizona-based nonprofit, will see the Stanley Film Center assignment cross the finish line. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Business said Friday that because the movie center is an appropriation approved through the regional tourism law, the state will provide $46 million in public funding.
The process of creating the film center has been an “incredible eight-year journey,” John Cullen, owner of the Grand Heritage Hotel Group, said Friday at a special assembly of the Colorado Economic Development Commission, which is looking at the sale of the hotel and the progression of the film medium.
Once completed, the Stanley Film Center will be “a two-story construction of approximately 64,735 square feet, adding an approximately 864-seat amphitheater with a fireplace that can accommodate 1,200 more people (adding only a status room), an event center, a movie theater” a museum, a sound studio, and related equipment, which will be built next to the hotel’s main construction and connected to the concert hall,” according to state documents.
While Grand Heritage is expected to continue to manage the hotel and movie theater, Community Finance Corp. will become the owner of the Stanley in a matter of weeks through a $475 million bond from the Colorado Cultural and Educational Facilities Authority, a government firm involved. in the unorthodox style of financing used for sale.
In addition to helping fund the finishing touch of the movie center, the sale and bond issuance is expected to allow the 116-year-old, 140-room Stanley to build “a three-story expansion, comprising approximately 86,000 square feet and approximately 58,000 square feet. Additional rooms, which will connect and become part of the hotel’s main building,” according to a CECFA document.
“I could not be happier to know that the legacy of the Stanley Hotel will survive here in an almost permanent sense,” Cullen said. “I’ve owned it for 28 years, and this bond issue secures it from anyone else doing anything wrong with it for another 30 years. Then there’s a deed restriction beyond that for another 50 years.”
Cullen, as well as the partners who helped him craft the somewhat original terms of the hotel’s sale, are “someone who is very determined to make his plans a reality and is willing to do new things and things that have never been done. “done before. ” Jeff Kraft, deputy director of OEDIT, said at Friday’s EDC meeting, which included an executive consultation that likely included the main points of the agreement with Blumhouse. Array. . The fact that the Stanley Hotel itself and the Movie Center have a long-term monetary legacy with a non-profit organization is a reflection of their vision, incredible perseverance, and problem-solving skills. “
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