The Bright Future of Allen Park Center Studios

by Chris Aliapoulios

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Jimmy Lifton’s Unity Studios is the first phase in the development of a 104 acre property owned by the city of Allen Park. The Allen Park Center Studios will be an epicenter for movie production and a full stop shop for entertainment, education and recreation. Allen Park Mayor Gary J. Burtka explained, “We have a lot of room to work with here. The whole area is going to be entertainment and education and a fun place to come and visit. It’s going to be a destination.”

Detroit born Jimmy Lifton is the President of Unity Studios, the first movie studio to take up residence at the Allen Park Center, and LIMS (The Lifton Institute for Media Skills). Lifton also runs two California based post production facilities called Oracle Post. While Oracle Post specializes in sound, Lifton is experienced in all aspects of film making. He has produced 13 feature films and profitably self distributed them.

He has also successfully negotiated international rights and coordinated theatrical release, a particularly important skill for the new studio center. Lifton has collaborated with Fox, HBO , NBC , Showtime, Sci-Fi, Disney, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Columbia Tri-Star, Warner Brothers, VH1 and MTV, among others.

Unity Studios and LIMS have already begun producing their first movie in Allen Park, titled Blind Sided. LIMS received approval as a proprietary school and has produced its first class of graduates. The school provides five career tracks including production management, art department, camera light and grip, sound and editorial. Students receive classroom and hands on training. The first Unity Studio feature film provided many opportunities for students to develop the skills they learned.

Burtka said, “Last week they (Unity) were shooting a movie right here on site, and they used our billboard out front. It said ‘Big Lottery Here Today.’ We could only let them have it up for a couple of hours because we didn’t want the residents to think we were holding a lottery in City Hall. We let them do their shoots then we had to get that back to normal.”

World Aint Right (WAR) Entertainment was the second production company to come on board. They have relocated equipment and people from their Pittsburg location. Burtka said, “Its great to have them here.

“They have toured our high school. It has a phenomenal stage and a brand new creative arts department. They plan to do joint projects with the high school. Students coming out of the HS are very excited because not every student is college bound or wants college in the traditional way. They want options like trade schools. Until a year and a half ago the movie industry in Michigan wasn’t even in consideration, so it gives these students another goal that they can reach out and possibly attain.”

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The city is also in discussions with additional movie studio occupants. Burtka said, “We’ve been talking with three more major national names in LA. In the next 60 days we will have some major announcements in Allen Park about additional partners in this project including possibly another studio to compliment WAR and Unity. We anticipate at least two and maybe all three coming on board.”

The Allen Park Center continues to house Roush Technologies. Roush is already well known for automotive performance engineering and racing. “Roush has an entertainment group that works with Universal studios. They provide performance vehicles and are building rides for Universal Studios now,” said Burtka. Roush contracted with the city to occupy another 50,000 square feet of the complex on top of the 200,000 square feet they already have. A go-kart track with cars developed by Roush is also being discussed. “They are all going to be Fords. This is Ford Country,” said Burtka.

Stautzenberger College will soon be relocating its Livonia campus to the Allen Park Center, too. Classes will be offered in growing fields like the entertainment industry, health care and business management. Burtka said, “It’s affirmation that Unity Studios and Allen Park are becoming the nerve center of our state’s film industry.”

And what movie studio would be complete without top-notch food? The complex houses a restaurant that used to feed 2500 to 3000 people per day that’s in mint condition. Continental Catering and Events will be expanding in to the Allen Park Center to feed all the movie production teams.

Naturally the Allen Park Center will feature a movie theatre complex. Burtka said, “This is a go fast project. They are looking at a drive-in theatre. You tune in a channel on the radio for sound so there is no infrastructure, just a screen. A screening room will be built for the movie industry. We are going to start with the drive-in and screening room. Then probably within a year or two we will get a full fledged eight to tenplex theatre up and running.”

Unity and Allen Park are collaborating with the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village as well. They have thousands of costumes, actual garments and numerous period collections that can be used in film, representing different eras throughout US History. Burtka said, “Henry Ford used to do films back in the 50’s and 60’s so there is a history here. It fell by the wayside when things moved out to California.”

Allen Park Center also offers a wind tunnel. Mayor Burtka said, “The movie industry is interested in that aspect because you can create the Mojave Desert or Alaska if you want to. We were told the US bobsled team trains in one so you can actually create whatever environment you want in the world right there.”

The center will host a couple of nice coffee shops, small retail restaurants, boutiques and high end hotels with maybe 80 to 100 rooms. And, a driving range.

Allen Park Center Studios is: “at the heart of all the expressways; ten minutes from the airport; five minutes away from major four star hotels in Dearborn; and a quarter mile from either Home Depot or Lowes. Burtka explained “We have everything the movie industry needs and desires right here in Allen Park. The message I want to get out is that the movie industry in Michigan is real. There are always naysayers out there saying ‘when I see the movies I’ll believe it’ but once our studios get fully up and running you’ll see a lot more movies being generated right out of Allen Park, Michigan.”

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