Downey luring movie makers to former NASA factory site. (Up Front).

BETTER known for Big Macs than blockbusters, the City of Downey is in the midst of a major push to attract filmmakers to a handful of cavernous buildings on a 160-acre former NASA plant a few blocks from the 105 Freeway.

The city has drawn a slew of big-budget features in the last year to film on a 55-acre portion of the site, including the megahit "Spider-Man," the upcoming "Austin Powers Gold-member," and Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," due out this Christmas with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.

And Downey just inked its biggest deal yet: a seven-month agreement to rent several hundred thousand square feet for the production of "T3: The Rise of the Machines," the latest "Terminator" movie.

"It's a small world with these location guys and a lot of it is word of mouth," said Darrell George, the city's director of community and economic development, who said he's been amazed by Hollywood's response since the "Spider-Man" deal was signed last fall.

The city has not marketed the site at all. Yet more than half a dozen major features, as well as a few television commercial productions, have rented space.

The so-called Downey Studios -- really a series of sprawling former factory buildings and hangars -- has emerged almost by accident as the final piece of a development called The Downey Landing Project at the one-time National Aeronautics and Space Administration-owned facility.

The city bought 68 acres of the site from NASA for $20 million in 1998 and initially considered developing it for manufacturing. But officials wanted to involve the entire property, and it held out until 2000 when NASA sold the remaining 92 acres to the city for another $20 million.

Development plans call for a 34-acre big-box retail component, office buildings and a new, 380-bed Kaiser Permanente hospital. It is one of the largest mixed-use projects in the county.

The city has hired Irvine developer Eclipse Development Group to oversee the estimated $100 million retail portion of the project, which is scheduled to begin construction in July and finish by next summer.

Downey also has a $13 million deal to sell 30 acres of the site to Kaiser Permanente for a new hospital, which is set to break ground early next year.

Mixed-use make-up

Together, the retail, medical and film components are being counted on to generate thousands of permanent jobs, compensating for the estimated $16 million that the city has lost in direct and indirect revenue since Boeing Co., the last NASA tenant, left the facility in 1998.

For Downey, a city of 100,000 in southeast Los Angeles County noted for being home to the nation's oldest surviving McDonald's, hosting film production is an opportunity to change its sleepy image.

"It was crushing when Boeing pulled out. This was the economic engine of not just the city but the whole region," George said. "Now we have this great opportunity and it has really brought a lot of excitement to the city."

That Downey is even in the film business involves a bit of serendipity. City officials had discussed the possibility of using some of the former NASA site for film and television production, but it wasn't until Jim McCabe, a location manager for "Spider-Man," contacted the city about using some of the buildings that the idea took off.

Downey wooed "Spider-Man" with bargain-basement prices -- basically covering costs and making improvements to some of the buildings, George said.

"We look at this as a startup business, and what does a startup business do? It offers discounts and incentives;' he said.

McCabe said he was looking for a large space to build a Times Square set when he remembered that Boeing had vacated the Downey site.

"There's not that many big open spaces in Los Angeles," McCabe said. "Downey was able to provide us with a 17-acre location with no wires overhead. It was a huge set. We had 20,000 extras."

McCabe, a 22-year veteran of the film business, said the production struck a great deal with Downey and that he would return to the city "in a heartbeat."

Acknowledging an asset

In some ways, the buildings are ideally suited to filming because they have massive amounts of open space and ceilings that rise higher than 50 feet. But there is no on-site power source, forcing film crews to rely on generators. Also, roofs leak and, far from polished sound stages, the buildings are little more than vast empty spaces.

Although at least a portion of the space has been in constant use since last fall, it's not amounted to a windfall for Downey. So far, the city has brought in only $500,000 in rental fees. George said the tenant productions have also been making repairs to the buildings, paying for security on the site and, perhaps most importantly, sowing the seeds for future business.

"Because it's not a traditional studio, they are operating a little differently and they aren't charging market rates," said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

"The problem is if they are too successful they could start pushing up rental rates and that would turn people off;' he said.

Ultimately, Downey intends to repair the buildings to make them more appealing and may even build soundstages in some, George said. And the city will almost certainly hire an outside production expert to manage the space.

"Is it going to be a long-term viable business for the city? I don't know," George said. "Right now, we're on a roll."