Villa Muse Project Near Groundbreaking East of Austin

So how do we retain artists in Austin after they “hit it big?” How do we make Austin a true entertainment industry center that can hold its own against the industries of bigger cities? Agh, such questions! Yet fear not, questioning readers; the answer may be near!

Enter Villa Muse, an innovative and ambitious project run by a team of experienced entertainment warhorses who believe they can take Austin’s entertainment industry to the next level. We first brought the story of this burgeoning project to you last April, when the details of this four-year initiative first began trickling out to the public. Here’s a brief description of Villa Muse:

WHO: Over a decade ago, local sound engineer Jay Aaron Podolnick came up with the idea for a central production complex in Austin where creatives from various disciplines could cross-pollinate their ideas. Podolnick has been putting the Villa Muse team together since that time. About 4 years ago, the entire project moved to a whole new level as the team began to grow significantly and the business model expanded to include a residential/retail/commercial community that would surround the studio complex.

Image from Villa Muse

WHEN: The Villa Muse team will break ground on the project later this year. “Phase One” (including core elements of Villa Muse Studios, the main street district and the first phase of residential neighborhoods) will be complete by the end of 2009.

WHERE: Villa Muse will be built 14 miles east of downtown Austin on Highway 969 near Webberville, Texas. It’s about a 15-20 minute drive from downtown.

HOW: The entire Villa Muse project will be privately funded and Austin taxpayers will not pay a single dime. Villa Muse isn’t asking the City of Austin for any cash incentives.

This project is a direct response to Austin’s lack of world-class entertainment infrastructure, and it’s a bold attempt to bridge the gap between a mid-level entertainment industry with huge potential (which Austin is) and a mature industry with world-class production facilities and creative professionals (which Austin, says Villa Muse, could be).

“At the root of this project is our passion for the creative arts and our faith in the potential of the Austin creative community,” Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, Vice President of Strategic Planning at Villa Muse, told Austinist. “Villa Muse is more than just a bold vision; it's a team of top industry professionals who have the ability, experience and tools to make that vision a reality for Austin and the State of Texas at large."

Indeed, if there’s one item of which Villa Muse appears to have an ample supply, it’s tools. With each passing month, Villa Muse continues to attract more and more world-renowned professionals from the film, music and interactive sectors to its team, a list of powerhouses that reads more like a global entertainment industry all-star roster than an advisory board for a $2.5 billion dollar, groundbreaking economic development project.

“First of all, Villa Muse Studios will facilitate start-to-finish production of any given project, such as shooting, editing and scoring a movie, at a single location – which is a significant and unique advantage. But on top of that, it will allow clients to produce projects across multiple media at the same time – for instance, not just a movie or TV show, but also the soundtrack and the videogame, plus commercials to market all of those things. There's nowhere in the world where you can do all that in the same place. Not only will we provide new efficiencies and cost-savings through integrated production and post-production workflow, we'll also be creating a home for an entirely new type of collaboration between creatives across different areas. We believe that this gives way to a huge untapped realm of possibilities in content creation, through cross-disciplinary integration and digital media convergence. We not only want to bring Austin’s creative industries to the competitive level occupied by cities like New York and L.A., we also want to create a new, cross-disciplinary area where Austin creatives can unleash their potential like never before.”

The project, as you may have noticed, has been in the news quite a bit lately. In a recent series of press releases, Villa Muse announced that Janson Design Group has been secured to design Villa Muse Studios (this is the actual studio area…the entire development will be called “Villa Muse”), and that the skilled design firm will be opening an Austin office as well.

Additionally, Villa Muse has recently announced the addition of two recording industry veterans to its team: Barry Bongiovi as General Manager of the Recording Complex (former General Manager at Right Track Recording, New York). Ed Evans as Technical Director (former Technical Director at Power Station in New York), and Michael Corenblith (who has earned two Academy Award nominations for his production design work), a leading production designer in the film and television industries who will act as a consultant to oversee the design of the project’s film complex.

Additionally, it has become clear that the project is growing in both scope and credibility. The Perryman Group, an economic and financial analysis firm based in Waco, recently completed a statewide economic impact study for Villa Muse. The results of this study showed that the development will “substantially increase the value of the property involved and will generate sizable economic impacts including more than $6 billion in spending in the Austin area during construction and between $6.5 billion and $20.2 billion in local spending each year” once the development matures (Austin Business Journal). Statewide impacts, said the Perryman study, will be even more substantial. Villa Muse has also recently requested that the City release 1,900 acres of land (which includes the Villa Muse development space as well as a construction equipment staging area) from the outer edge of its extraterritorial jurisdiction so that they can build the development with private capital, at zero cost to Austin taxpayers.

Since we last reported on the Villa Muse in April 2007, the project has quite clearly gained a huge amount of support. Many state elected officials – including Rep. Dawnna Dukes, who got a landmark entertainment industry bill passed during the last Texas Legislative Session – have pledged their enthusiastic support and have continued to work closely with Villa Muse to help make Texas more competitive in the global entertainment industries. Even Governor Perry himself has expressed his commitment to supporting an increase in production incentives during the next Legislative Session in order to attract more business to our state. “It’s now time to move forward, and we’re ready,” says Alvarado-Dykstra. The Villa Muse team now waits on the support of Austin city leaders, who must work with Villa Muse if the project is to happen in Austin (as opposed to somewhere else in Texas).

“We are definitely trying to do something out of the ordinary here, there’s no question about that,” concluded Alvarado-Dykstra in our interview. “But the potential benefits Villa Muse will bring to Austin and the State of Texas are nothing short of extraordinary.”