AT LTV: Million-Dollar Proposal

DreamWorks? "Men's Lives"? Barry Sonnenfeld? Alan Pakula? Nora Ephron? Alec?

Just who are the mystery filmmakers whose project in East Hampton this fall could help fund a state of the art soundstage next to LTV Studios?

Frazer Dougherty, an LTV founder and the father of the soundstage plan, isn't telling. His lawyer, George Stankevich, isn't telling. But, whoever it is, Mr. Dougherty and Mr. Stankevich have assured the East Hampton Town Board that they'll be duly impressed.

"We should go into executive session. We'll tell you who it is," Mr. Stankevich told the board on Tuesday. "You'll love it." The board declined.

Amber Light

Despite repeated mention of Steven Spielberg, Billy Joel, even Jimmy Buffett, at Tuesday's meeting, Mr. Stankevich did not reveal the name or backers of an "extensive film shoot in the community" that would fund the first phase of the 10,000-square-foot soundstage and media center adjoining LTV. He did say, however, that the film would be based on "an East Hampton story."

Those involved in it have given Mr. Dougherty the "amber light" to proceed. "We do need to act fast," he said. "They tell me they're going to want to shoot in November or October."

Not only would the production in question fund the building itself, but future projects at the soundstage could provide a lasting source of income for LTV, a nonprofit company that operates East Hampton's local access Cablevision channel.

"Could Make Millions"

The media center and soundstage would be a separate nonprofit company with all its earnings going back into LTV, Mr. Dougherty said. "In that vein, we could make millions of dollars and plug it back into LTV," he said.

A film soundstage could earn as much as $2,000 a day and would bring "high-powered" jobs into the community, Mr. Stankevich said. "If I had a dream sheet of jobs I'd like to foster in this community, I'd like to foster $40,000 to $50,000 jobs in the film industry."

But Town Board members questioned whether, in the end, those jobs would go to people in East Hampton or to outside technicians who come here for a limited time to work on a production. The board asked the applicants to come back with specific details on how many jobs would be created and what kind.

Question Of Jobs

"Show me it's going to generate $50,000 local jobs for local people . . . that are directly and indirectly related to projects that are going to be there," Councilman Len Bernard said. "It's going to be global jobs for global people," Mr. Stankevich said.

"Unions regulate these things," Councilman Peter Hammerle commented. "Will they scoop up local carpenters during the winters or will they rely on an influx of people from out of town? Because we're leasing for peanuts to people who have much more than peanuts."

Lots in the town-owned Industrial Park lease for around $1,200 a year, but despite the low rate it has proven difficult for the town to attract the kind of industry it once envisioned for the area.

The park has often been a dumping ground for things nobody wants in their own backyard. In the absence of industrial facilities, the Town Board has tried at least to insure that the lessees will provide a solid number of jobs for people in the community.

"If this isn't public access, we need to know how many jobs it will create," Supervisor Cathy Lester said. "It's the same criteria for anyone else in the Industrial Park."

"Tell me how many people you'd like to have employed there," Mr. Dougherty responded.

"The point is not to send you out with a number and then have you say, how can I trump this up so it looks good to the Town Board," Councilman Job Potter said.

Concerns Remain

Mr. Dougherty guessed that 50 percent of all the jobs on a given production might go to locals. Many of the productions would be union, Mr. Stankevich acknowledged, "so local people would join the union." However, he said over the course of the year the media center and sound stage could provide "hundreds and hundreds of jobs."

People in the film industry who live in this area would be "so happy to have [a sound studio] in the Hamptons and really happy to have it at the airport," he said.

Those characterizations don't exactly answer the Town Board's concerns, nor have they convinced the board that the Industrial Park is the place for a soundstage. Board members also wondered aloud whether the facility was a function of LTV or a separate commercial endeavor even if it were to be a nonprofit entity.

Intimately Connected

"It's very hard for me to accept that this thing has very much to do with LTV," Councilman Potter said.

"Media center. That doesn't mean anything to me," the Supervisor said.

"It's a place where media things can happen," Mr. Dougherty responded. The facility would be more film-oriented than LTV and would do some of what LTV already does, but on a more sophisticated scale, he explained.

"LTV was always a media center," Mr. Dougherty said. "It was a media center because we were forced into that situation as a means of supporting ourselves."

Mr. Dougherty said that though the project would be intimately connected to LTV, the LTV board of directors had no involvement.

Go It Alone?

Mr. Dougherty is the chairman of that board, but at one point he said he would be willing to buy the half lot next to LTV on which the soundstage would be built from the town in order to put up the facility himself. No LTV funds would be spent on it, but it would complement the facility, he said.

Mr. Dougherty has submitted preliminary plans to the Planning Board and reviewed them briefly with the Planning Department, but has yet to get approval from the Town Board to lease more space in the Industrial Park.

Before he can proceed, he needs that approval and on Tuesday the Supervisor told him it would be at least a year before anything happened.

"If we don't do this we're missing a golden opportunity," Mr. Stankevich said. "Suffolk and Nassau County jerked Spielberg around with DreamWorks and they're so sorry."

CARISSA KATZ