At the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) monthly board meeting, one agenda item was the progress of the Medient Studioplex. During the Public Comment portion, a member of the public said he had a comment. “About Medient,” the gentleman began. “The main thing that bothers me about Medient is the financing for this project. According to today’s stock report, there is no value to [Medient stock]. It’s zero. How are they going to come up with all of this money?”

A couple of board members attempted to offer responses but they were timid and vague. Then, John Henry, CEO of the IDA, spoke up. “I’ll just go on record as saying things that are not ready for public dissemination.” The questioner was Art Rudd, a former member of the IDA board, serving seven years with the organization.

IDA has convened a small committee to address the business of Medient and to work with the company’s new leadership. The first meeting of that committee was on the morning of Tuesday, August 12, wherein Medient President and CEO Jake Shapiro gave a presentation on the company’s revised master plan for the complex, and provided the IDA board with a brightly-colored architectural map of the new plan. 

The committee determined that there were other significant pieces of information needed in preparation for a vote of the full board at the September 19 meeting. The committee met again on the morning of August 19. The list of items still outstanding, according to Henry, consists of the development schedule, job creation figures, capital investment commitment, a supplemental agreement to the current memorandum of understanding, a determination as to the need for Development of Regional Impact (DRI) study and a revised engineering report that addresses water and sewer design and some surveying corrections to the master plan map. “We have agreed to have weekly meetings . . . until we can get all of that information in hand,” said Henry. “We’re shooting for the September board meeting . . . for the board to make a decision on the master plan approval at that time.”

As to whether anything on the list of outstanding items would directly address the question posed by Rudd, Henry said they would not. “There are requirements in the main memorandum of understanding itself, which has not been passed yet, so the supplemental agreement should address that,” he said. “It has already been addressed but they will have to reconfirm their financial commitment in light of the new ownership.”

The chairman of the Medient board is entertainment mogul, Charles Koppelman. Koppelman recently visited Effingham County to address the Regional Development Authority. He described the new master plan as simpler and more practical than the original one, and asserting his commitment to and active involvement in the project, according to Henry.

Also on the Medient board of directors is former New York Governor David Paterson. The new CEO, Joel A. “Jake” Shapiro, 43, is a former Wall Streeter with a long list of credentials including high positions in several large companies and many grand business accomplishments, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Shapiro weighed in on Rudd’s question after the meeting by phone with Savannah CEO. Shapiro began by stating that as a public company, Medient was prohibited by the Security & Exchange Act from disclosing financial information on a piecemeal basis. “That said, it is a matter of public record that I have raised, during my career, literally tens-of-millions-of-dollars in the entertainment space, and over $100 million overall.” Shapiro, who lives in Savannah, also cited Paterson, the former governor of New York and now the head of the Democratic Party in that state, and Koppelman, “. . . who has literally raised in the billions of dollars . . . the three of us all have very proven success in raising capital,” Shapiro said. “If you go back and look at the amount of capital that has been raised just in the last six to nine months by Medient, it’s in the millions and millions of dollars,” pointing out that Medient has already proven its ability to attract capital investment, even under the old leadership.

Shapiro said he feels the new team Medient has assembled is top notch, which also helps in attracting the attention of investors. The company has filed to be relisted on the Over-The-Counter securities markets and that he is confident that will happen in the near future. He said the company is currently in conversations with various institutional investors.

As September 19 closes in, both Medient and the IDA have their work cut out for them. And that’s just the beginning. “I have a lot of other questions,” said Rudd, “but they’ll come later.”