Written by Tom Deehan on Jul 28, 2017. Posted in Incentive News

North Miami to revive its production industry with a dedicated film incentive

North Miami is set to introduce a dedicated film incentive programme in an effort to curtail the number of productions doubling Florida elsewhere since the state-level incentive was left to expire in 2016.

The programme will offer productions a reimbursement of 30% of their eligible expenditure, with a per-project cap of USD50,000. Depending on the amount of expenditure incurred within North Miami, productions can also receive free parking and storage space to house equipment.

In order to access the incentive, productions must film within the city’s redevelopment area which encompasses the city centre, west-side and a portion of Biscayne Boulevard.

City Manager, Larry Spring explains: “film incentives from the state-level, that’s where the real meaty incentives were. We wanted to come up with something to help the production companies at least a little bit.”

Miami-Dade County recently installed its own local film incentive, offering rebates of up to USD100,000 on a minimum local spend of USD1 million. The programme will be made available August 1^st 2017.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Giménez notes: “this is a vital industry for our local economy, and we want those who are a part of it to be able to work and live here, and not have to move away in order to pay their bills.”

In the wake of losing its state-level film incentive, Florida has seen most of its major productions leave in search of a better financial deal. HBO’s Ballers recently shifted production to California for the 25% tax credit offered to relocating TV shows.

Miami did receive a huge profile boost last year however with the release of Moonlight, which highlighted the skill of the local crew base as the film went on to gross USD65 million worldwide and be declared Best Film at the 89^th Academy Awards.