CITIES PICTURE THEMSELVES WITH DREAMWORKS STUDIO.

Byline: Lee Condon Staff Writer

Welcome to the home of DreamWorks SKG - the star studio and pride of Burbank, or is it Glendale, Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita or North Hollywood?

A week after DreamWorks abandoned its plans to build a $250 million studio complex at Playa Vista near the beach, a long line of communities is trying to woo the glamorous production company run by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

The company, responsible for ``Saving Private Ryan'' and ``The Prince of Egypt,'' has yet to show any interest in reviving its plans for constructing a major studio at a single site. Operations now are scattered at Glendale, Universal City and Beverly Hills.

Mayors, city managers and development officers from throughout the San Fernando Valley region - home to Warner Bros., Disney and Universal - hope to become home to Hollywood's newest studio, a move that would boost tax and tourism revenues, bring good-paying jobs - and add star power.

``Not to champion their bad news, but this is an opportunity,'' said Derrill Quaschnick, assistant director of the Glendale Redevelopment Agency.

Santa Clarita Mayor Jo Anne Darcy is drafting a letter asking DreamWorks to consider her city.

Burbank City Manager Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom already has sent not one but three letters, including aerial photos of the sites he likes best.

The city of Lancaster is willing to give DreamWorks 47 acres - free.

And what is DreamWorks doing about all this newfound attention?

``We're not looking at anything at this point,'' said spokesman Andy Spahn. ``We've been getting calls, but we hadn't had discussions with anyone yet.''

That hang-back approach might only fuel the competition among suitors even though the early forecasts give the edge to Universal City, where DreamWorks has offices, and Glendale, where its animation shop is housed.

Advertising Burbank

That won't stop Burbank's Ovrom from pulling out all the stops. The city's No. 1 promoter has shamelessly attempted to entice other studios to locate new facilities in Burbank, going so far as taking out ads in the Hollywood trades.

After their ordeal in Playa Vista, where financing fell through and environmentalists raised substantial community opposition, Ovrom said DreamWorks might be ready for a pitch from a studio-friendly city like Burbank.

``Every site we'll show them is ready to go. All you have to do is come over to our counter and pull the building permit,'' he said.

While DreamWorks had planned to create a huge complex at Playa Vista, complete with soundstages and office buildings, Ovrom said it might make more sense for the company just to build a ``signature'' headquarters building and then to lease soundstage space from other studios, like Warner Bros. and NBC.

``We're perfect for that,'' Ovrom said. ``We're ground zero for the entertainment industry.''

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich weighed in on behalf of Lancaster's offer of land near Fox Field, writing letters to Spielberg and Katzenberg.

``Unlike the city of Los Angeles, Lancaster is business-friendly and would work to help you locate your studio in its jurisdiction,'' Antonovich wrote.

Dan Margolis, a spokesman for Mayor Richard Riordan's office of economic development, said DreamWorks is a priority for Los Angeles, which had offered more than $70 million in incentives for the Playa Vista site.

``As with other potential major developments, the city will continue to present DreamWorks with other sites. A number of sites are being considered,'' he said, adding that it was too soon to consider what types of incentives might be offered to the studio to locate in Los Angeles.

The L.A. site most often talked about is the North Hollywood Studio Project, where developer J. Allen Radford has been cleared to build 10 soundstages, two 20-story towers and a business campus.

Radford said his site provides a convenient location for DreamWorks because it is located near both the company's offices on the Universal campus and its 12-acre animation complex in Glendale.

``We always took the position that if they weren't successful in Playa Vista that we are a viable alternative within the city of Los Angeles,'' Radford said.

Getting aggressive

Bill Allen, president of the Economic Alliance of San Fernando Valley, said Los Angeles needs to be aggressive to win the project.

``I think Los Angeles should be scrambling to keep this deal because they have a good chance of losing it to Glendale and Burbank. It could be embarrassing for L.A. to lose this deal,'' Allen said. ``L.A. needs to take this competition seriously.''

``It would have an amazing positive effect on the North Hollywood community.''

DreamWorks' proposed studio would have been the first motion picture production studio built in Los Angeles since the 1930s.

Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird said he hopes to build on the relationship the city developed with DreamWorks when it built its animation shop there three years ago, and will encourage the company to utilize its entire campus or look at other potential sites in the city.

``We'd like to see Glendale be their home if we can meet their needs,'' Starbird said.

DreamWorks has not yet started construction on what was to be Phase 2 of its animation complex, which includes a 100,000- to 150,000-square-foot building. Unlike Playa Vista, the animation complex project was approved quickly.

Quaschnick said DreamWorks could always ask to change its plans and to build more space.

``They could develop the site more intensely than they had planned. Instead of building three stories, they could build four or five stories.''

Palmdale also is interested, and officials are talking to developers about the idea of establishing studios, including those with ties to DreamWorks, said Mayor Jim Ledford.

``Our philosophy is not to direct them to a particular site. We let them tell us what sites they are interested in and work with them to make that happen,'' he said.

Staff Writers Jim Skeen, Patricia Farrell Aidem and Angela M. Lemire contributed to this story.

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Map: DreamWorks SKG

Proposed sites, dropped sites