Fed up

Steve Gilmour thought he had found the perfect location to start his Atlantic Film Studios film development company to produce his planned multi-million dollar projects.

“I thought it was terrific,” said Gilmour, “I loved the studio; 12,000 square feet, 40-ft high ceilings, sound proofed…it’s absolutely a bargain.”

Gilmour said he was trying to buy the property since September but continued to get ‘constant delaying tactics and mistruths’ from SWSDA’s Director, Frank Anderson.

According to Gilmore, SWSDA wanted $2.75-million for the property.

“That wasn’t an offer that was what they wanted for it,” said Gilmore.

He went to the lawyers and put forth his proposal after assurances from Anderson that although there was another offer on the table from a building development company, a decision had not yet been made on who to sell the property to.

Gilmour said he and his lawyers then tried to make contact to find out information about the property but did not receive an answer.

“I sent email after email and phone call after phone call and got no reply.” said Gilmour.

In an email to Anderson Gilmore stated that he was told he would receive an answer to his proposal by Oct first and on Nov 6 was told to wait an additional two weeks for Anderson to make up his mind and when Gilmore contacted SWSDA’s lawyers in Yarmouth he was told that the site had already been sold to a developer.

Anderson said he was surprised by Gilmore’s retraction of his offer.

“We were surprised about the situation because we were dealing with him and everything was fine,” Anderson said.

He also explained that at times they had to chase down Gilmore’s lawyers to respond to their questions but that all efforts were made to keep up communication with Gilmore.

“We had a previous offer in and he knew that,” explained Anderson about the delay in his decision-making, “he knew all of the details so I just don’t understand.”

“I’d like to know what I’m up against. I’m pretty annoyed about the fact that we’ve wasted all this time,” said Gilmore adding, “if he’s not supposed to be selling it to anybody else he shouldn’t have wasted our time.”

Gilmore said Anderson encouraged him to borrow money through different sources of government for his original offer but later Gilmore refused saying, “forget it we don’t need your help…we’ll just buy it with no subject to anything.”

Later Gilmore also dropped the stipulation that an environmental assessment be done after learning that one had been accomplished recently.

Despite Gilmore’s assertion that his offer was made with no strings attached, Anderson said the opposite was true.

“The offer he made was not good enough,” he said, “there was too many conditions.”

At this time Anderson is not divulging any information on any of the other proposals made on the site or what plans the developers might have but Gilmour is afraid the sound studio is threatened to be leveled in favour of housing.

“They shouldn’t be bulldozing that facility or even contemplating it they should be using it for what it was designed to do,” said Gilmore. “If he wants to sell it to a developer than sell the rest of the land and sell [the studio] as a separate identity.”

Gilmore said he has received invitations to view Electropolis studios in Halifax and is considering the location as his only other alternative to make his company’s three movies in three years that total a budget of over $45-million.

However, according to Gilmore just one thing will change his mind on purchasing the site.

“As long as Frank Anderson is out of the play and somebody responsible will negotiate in a business like fashion between their lawyer and our lawyer and take away the Frank Anderson influence then the offer can be put back on the table.”