BEVERLY — For nearly 70 years, North Shore Music Theatre has been staging musicals and concerts at its theater at the end of Dunham Road. Now the organization could be taking a big step into the movie-making business.
North Shore Music Theatre owner Bill Hanney said he is looking into plans to build a “major movie studio” on the property. The plans, which he said are in the very early stages, would include building four large soundstages where sets can be constructed and movies and television productions can be filmed.
Hanney said he has done preliminary site work and has been speaking with film industry people from Massachusetts and Hollywood about the idea.
“We’re taking the temperature of everybody and they all love it,” he said. “It’s really exciting.”
The soundstages would be built on property behind the theater, which occupies only a portion of the 26 wooded acres that Hanney owns. The music theater would remain in business.
There has been demand for soundstage space since the state passed a film tax credit in 2005 that made filming movies in Massachusetts more attractive. Several movies have been shot on the North Shore in recent years, including “Manchester-by-the-Sea,” “The Tender Bar,” “Hubie Halloween” and “CODA”, which won the Academy Award for best picture in 2021, Hanney said.
Potential investors had been reluctant to invest in the large building projects that soundstages require because the tax credit was not permanent and could be rescinded. That has changed since the tax credit was made permanent in 2021, Hanney said.
“Now you’ve got a great film credit but there’s no infrastructure,” he said. “We’ve got a great location. We have proximity to Boston and we’re right at the highway.”
The music theater already has facilities and services that movie makers need, such as costume shops, welding shops, seam shops and paint shops.
Massachusetts currently has four soundstage/studio facilities, according to the Massachusetts Film Office, in Quincy, Canton, Foxborough and Devens. Another project is reportedly in the works for Braintree.
Gary Crossen, general manager of New England Studios in Devens, said business slowed last year during the writers’ and actors’ strikes, and the facility also shut down for nine months during the pandemic. But otherwise, he said the studio has done well, with TV shows and movies such as “Dexter,” “Defending Jacob,” “The Tender Bar” and “The Equalizer 2” filming there.
“It can be a little bit feast and famine when bad things are happening, but I think we’ve done well,” Crossen said.
He had not heard about North Shore Music Theatre’s plans, but cautioned that building a movie studio is expensive. New England Studio’s four soundstages are each 18,000 square feet, big enough that they were able to accommodate a set for flying witches for the movie “Hocus Pocus 2.”
“Our facility cost $35 million and it was built 10 years ago,” Crossen said. “Imagine what it would be now.”
Hanney has not filed any plans with the city yet. Ward 5 City Councilor Kathleen Feldman, who represents the area, said she had not heard about the plans, but said she would be opposed to any new development on Dunham Road until a new interchange and overpass is built that would allow vehicles to access Dunham Road directly from Route 128 and avoid passing through the residential section of the street.
“There is nothing that can go back there anymore until there’s an overpass,” Feldman said. “Dunham Road cannot support any more traffic.”
Traffic on Dunham Road has been a concern of neighbors for years. In addition to the music theater, which attracts about 250,000 people per year, according to the theater, the road is home to the Dunham Ridge business park, which has expanded considerably over the last few years.
The idea of building a new interchange and overpass has been around for two decades but has yet to be approved by the state. The concept is known as Phase 2 of the Brimbal Avenue interchange project. Phase 1 — two new roundabouts between Route 128 and Brimbal Avenue next to the Whole Food plaza — was completed in 2016.
The city has committed to spending $850,000 on a design for Phase 2. The city would then submit the design to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the state would decide whether to approve and fund the project. The MassDOT website lists the estimated cost at $22 million.
Feldman said the project is still five to 10 years away if it gets approved. In the meantime, she said Dunham Road is too narrow to support any more traffic.
“I can’t speak more strongly against anything else going back there,” she said. “It could be a puppy rescue and I would say absolutely not.”
Any traffic generated by a movie studio would be “low,” Hanney said.
“It’s pretty standard warehouse-type buildings traffic, so I don’t anticipate any issues,” he said.
North Shore Music Theatre opened in 1955. It shut down due to bankruptcy in 2009, but was purchased by Hanney and reopened in 2010.
He also owns Theatre By The Sea in Rhode Island, three movie theaters in Massachusetts and one movie theater in New Hampshire.
A successful movie studio would contribute to the area’s economy and help keep the North Shore Music Theatre alive, Hanney said.
“We bring so much economic activity to Beverly and the North Shore.”
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.