Film company for sale
Published 5:46 pm Monday, September 7, 2009
The property of a film production company located in the Hillpoint area of Suffolk is up for sale.
“We are not shutting down,” said David O’Donnell, vice president of development for New Dominion Pictures.
O’Donnell said the company is being reorganized to better fit the current television marketplace, which demands less reenactment-based programming than the company has done in the past. New Dominion Pictures is most famous for award-winning crime and paranormal series such as “The New Detectives,” “Ghost Stories,” “The FBI Files” and “A Haunting.”
With the shift away from reenactments, the company no longer needs a huge sound stage and a back lot featuring facades of everything from police stations to ‘50s diners. Therefore, the company decided to put the building on the market and see if it had any interest.
As it turns out, several churches already are interested.
“Interestingly, that’s been a pattern that we’ve noticed,” O’Donnell said. “It’s not that surprising; it’s pretty well set up for a church.”
The building provides a sound stage that could be converted into a sanctuary, as well as offices and conference rooms that would make good classrooms if a church bought the property.
“We’ve had a pretty regular stream of people coming to look at it,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell maintained that the production company is not shutting down, and is “very much still vibrant.”
“We have a lot of interesting shows coming up,” he said. “We’re excited about the future.”
The company is looking for other places to set up its offices, O’Donnell said.
“We’re definitely staying in Hampton Roads,” O’Donnell said. “We’re not necessarily leaving Suffolk. We’re looking at options in all the Hampton Roads cities.”