Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s decision to order a review of Bigfoot Entertainment Corp’s lease contract in the South Road Properties (SRP) is spurred by owner Michael Gliessner’s refusal to talk to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Rama is angry and) trying to pick on Mr. Gliessner because he would not pick u[ his (Rama’s) call,\u201d Rep. Tomas Osme\u00f1a of Cebu City’s south district told Cebu Daily 黑料社 yesterday.<\/p>\n
Rama earlier ordered a review of the studio’s lease contract to see if they actually used the two-hectare lot for film production.<\/p>\n
“We cannot allow a structure standing with nothing being done,” he said.<\/p>\n
The mayor said he is concerned about the lack of activities at the Bigfoot studio which has a 25-year lease contract with the city that started in 2007.<\/p>\n
The P150 million facility consisting of four sound stages that were barely used, Rama said.<\/p>\n
Gliessner said during the studio’s inauguration in Nov. 2008 that the Bigfoot studio in Cebu aims to “bring Hollywood to Asia.”<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a said he hasn’t talked to Gliessner for a while but heard that Rama has been trying to call him several times.<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a said Rama could always order a review of the Bigfoot contract but warned that the mayor will find everything to be in order.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Gliessner) has been paying his rent and he does not own the property. At the end of it (the 25-year contract, it (the Bigfoot studio) will be owned by the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a also justified the $0.40 per sq. meter contract lease which he gave to Bigfoot, saying that while the amount was low, it was the \u201cgoing rate\u201d of the SRP in 2007.<\/p>\n
He explained that Filinvest Land Inc. and SM Prime Holdings have not yet bought portions of the reclaimed lot.<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a said there’s no stipulation in the contract that Bigfoot should use the lot to generate employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur only interest is for them to come in and pay the rent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Osme\u00f1a said the US economic crisis prevented Gliessner from pursuing an earlier plan to use the Bigfoot SRP studio to produce films here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor is just politicizing everything,\u201d the congressman said. Instead of picking on Gliessner, Osme\u00f1a asked Rama to find his own investors.<\/p>\n
He said Rama was unable to lure even one investor since becoming mayor in 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s decision to order a review of Bigfoot Entertainment Corp’s lease contract in the South Road Properties (SRP) is spurred by owner Michael Gliessner’s refusal to talk to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1242,1227],"tags":[],"byline":[1248],"source":[206068],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n