Guadalajara

Mexico’s state of Jalisco may soon be bidding for a slice of Hollywood movie budgets. A new complex of media-related facilities in the Lake Chapala area hopes to put itself on the entertainment map—and create thousands of new jobs for locals.

A media park focused primarily on animation and technology has already opened in the town of Chapala, on the shores of Lake Chapala. Film studios are planned for the town of Mezcala, about 15 minutes east of Chapala along the lakeshore. Pundits are already dubbing the area Chapalawood and calling it a new center for Mexico’s Jaliwood film industry.

Lake Chapala lies in a scenic part of central Mexico and has several small towns clustered around its shores. Its year-round temperate climate allows filming 95% of the year, say Jalisco state commerce officials. The lake is less than an hour from Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and home to an international airport with direct fights to the U.S.

Lake Chapala, especially the area around the towns of Ajijic and Chapala, is also home to Mexico’s largest expat community. As many as 15,000 foreigners, mostly from the U.S. and Canada, live along the lake full- or part-time.  Many of these expats own homes and run businesses in the area.

“[The complex is] a great public/private enterprise, which I think is a great way to do business,” says Thomas Hellyer, a U.S. expat who is a real estate agent in the Chapala area. Mexican government sources covered about 85% of the project’s cost, while industry paid about 15%.

“The whole idea is to have a lot of these high-tech, well-paying jobs located right here… Not in Mexico City, and not even in Guadalajara.”

The Chapala facility, known as Chapala Media Park, will focus “mostly on animation and video game production,” says Dr. Morris Schwarzblat y Katz, director of the Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Chapala. The technology institute has been heavily involved in development of the media complex, which will mostly provide jobs for programmers and artists.

At full capacity, Schwarzblat says, the media complex is expected to employ about 3,000 people.

Many of these look to be new jobs for skilled professionals. If the complex meets expectations, therefore, it’s likely to be a huge engine for economic growth in the Lake Chapala area.

“As a realtor, this is something I am keeping an eye on,” says Hellyer.

So far signs are relatively good. The media park, which only opened in March, has “three or four projects already,” says Schwarzblat. At least one company has signed a lease for office space through 2014.

And the Mexican film and video industries are doing well.

“The film industry produced about $24 billion last year,” says Scharzblat, “and the video game industry”—the main focus of the Chapala facility—“produced $48 billion.”

So will Hollywood come knocking?

For now, the complex aims to depend primarily on the robust Mexican film industry for business. But clearly government officials are thinking big: Mexico showcased its Jaliwood complex at the recent Cannes Film Festival—and pointed out that the Lake Chapala studios are only a two-and-a-half hour flight from Hollywood.