Forest City Enterprises, a Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Cleveland, is building one of the largest and most modern film facilities on the continent – in New Mexico. Observant policy makers – starting with Governor Bill Richardson – spotted the sweet spot the motion picture sector can occupy a long time ago. Forest City’s development not only provides the ‘factory’ for good blue-collar film production jobs but is also bringing more of the Creative Class (special effects programmers) from LA to Albuquerque.

This spring, Forest City announced that Sony Pictures Imageworks (think special FX for Polar Express, Spider Man) will lease 100,000 square feet next to the production facility. The groundbreaking was held June 25.