By Katie Priest and Ava Uhlack, Feb. 9, 2025
Cal Poly Pomona has brought in more than $10 million in revenue from Hollywood film projects on the 309-acre property given to the campus from the state in 2015 that was once the Lanterman Developmental Center.
The stewardship of the land, now known as Campus South, is run through CPP Foundation Inc.’s real estate department. According to university officials, including CPP President Soraya M. Coley, the revenue is used for operating costs making the property “self-sustaining.” However, through an extensive public records search, The Poly Post investigative team uncovered Lanterman operates at a loss of almost $7 million, despite more than $10 million in profits between 2015 and 2023.
According to a Lanterman property development update from Jan. 11, 2021, the project’s main goal was to “revitalize the approximately 300-acre site into a thriving and active live, learn, work and play community.” But CPP has had issues finding a consistent developer. According to a presentation given during the Academic Senate meeting Feb. 5, two developers have been involved with Lanterman since 2017.
“It’s not just a Cal Poly problem, it’s a problem everywhere across the country right now; development is so hard to get off the ground,” said Anthony Orlando, an associate professor of finance, real estate and law and the faculty representative appointed by the Academic Senate for the Lanterman project. “It’s a lot about risk sharing. The question is who is going to put the money down. Cal Poly’s been clear from the start. We aren’t putting any Cal Poly dollars into this, so it’s how to get a developer comfortable with spending their capital.”
According to The Poly Post investigations, there have been numerous plan shifts, disruptions to development, changing revenue streams and a three-year update hiatus throughout CPP’s 10-year ownership of the property.
Campus South reimagined as a filming location
In the 2017-2019 biennial report published by CPP Foundation, it was reported Lanterman had been used for film productions. Due to funding limitations set out by the state, CPP Foundation’s real estate department partnered with RSI Locations, a filming location management company, to rent the property to filmmakers.
Between 2015-2016 and 2022-2023 academic years, Campus South has generated around $15.9 million in revenue from filming, according to a revenue and expense report acquired by The Poly Post investigative team through a public records request. Of that total, CPP Foundation has paid RSI just over $4.5 million in commission for its services, leaving a total profit of about $10.3 million for CPP.
“Filming on site (includes) commercials, music videos, other productions, TV (shows) and movies, things like that that really help to generate those funds,” said Jared Ceja, CEO of Foundation. “That goes toward the upkeep of that property and that land until the future development occurs in which it’ll be turned over to other uses.”
According to the 2017-2019 biennial Foundation report, studios such as “Warner Brothers, HBO, Netflix, CBS and Amazon hosted a total of 171 productions” over the two-year period. RSI Locations oversees film operations on the property. Costs for filming range from location fees starting at $1,250 up to $7,000 per day, excluding utility fees, catering and staging.
Some projects filmed on the property include the TV show “Lessons in Chemistry” with Brie Larson, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” with Daniel Radcliffe and some Super Bowl commercials, according to Ceja.
Lanterman’s history of safety and infrastructure concerns
The structures on the Lanterman property have been described as “unreliable” in the 2017-2019 biennial report, which has led to safety concerns and the blockage of faculty and staff use of the property. Filmmakers are only allowed to use the property after they sign liability forms releasing CPP of any and all liability.
“Other people are signing a document saying that they are taking the risk,” Coley said in an interview with The Poly Post. “We’re not going to ask a student to sign a document that you’re going to go to campus, and it could be a problem. For the filmers, it is at their own risk that they have to sign that we are not liable.”
Coley added there have been instances where people have trespassed on the property to live in the buildings. This is what led to adding fencing around the property and additional security measures, including guards.
The Lanterman Developmental Center was a state-owned hospital that opened in 1927 as Pacific Colony and State Narcotics Hospital. The hospital was a place of treatment for people who were regarded as “feeble-minded.” After World War II ended and more funds were given to the site, it was renamed the Pacific State Hospital in 1953.
The hospital was closed for a variety of factors, including the cost of necessary infrastructure improvements.
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Senate Bill 944 laid out the process for the transfer of the land to interested parties during the fall semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. The bill stated a portion of the land must go toward “development of projects that create sustainable employment opportunities of benefit to the area and region in which the property is located.”
This is when the vision of creating a community of affordable faculty, staff and student housing with restaurants, retail stores and research facilities began for Coley’s working group, but the property also came with some stipulations. The university was required to historically preserve some of the site, accommodate the needs of other state departments, like California Highway Patrol, using a portion of the land, and no state funding could be used for the property, leaving CPP to generate funds through “public-private” partnerships.
Originally Five Point Holdings LLC was selected in 2018 but backed out of the project in April 2020 citing leadership changes. After a second search, Edgewood Realty & Greystar were chosen as a developer in August 2021 but paused talks in December 2023 due to the financial market conditions caused by the pandemic.
Because the project is contingent on a master developer having to take the financial weight of the project, losing a developer starts the process all over again. CPP chose Kosmont Financial Services in late 2024 to present new financing options for the property. In the meantime, CPP has looked to filming as an opportunity to bring in revenue.
CPP loses more than it makes on Lanterman
CPP earned an average of almost $2 million per year in film revenue, leading to a total of almost $10.3 million between the 2015-2016 and 2022-2023 academic years.
According to the revenue and expenses report obtained by The Poly Post, more than $900,000 was recorded in 2015-2016, the first year after the property was transferred to CPP from the state. Earnings from film contracts were highest in 2021-2022, grossing more than $3.4 million, and according to the most recent data obtained by The Poly Post, CPP gained just over $2.3 million in 2022-2023.
While The Poly Post doesn’t have access to the earning report from 2023-2024, in a CPP Foundation finance and investment committee meeting Sept. 12, 2023, Ceja expressed concerns over the writers and actor strikes in 2023 and their implications on Lanterman film projects. According to the meeting minutes, the strikes caused a significant drop in revenue from filming for Lanterman.
However, operating expenses reached $17 million for the Lanterman property during those years, which, when deducted from the $10.3 in profits, leads to a nearly $7 million deficit. Expenses totaled more than $750,000 at Lanterman in the first academic year, but in the 2017-2018 academic year, they reached a high of almost $2.7 million.
According to the revenue and expenses report notes obtained by The Poly Post, the funds to cover the deficit came from “a combination of Enterprise Foundation contributions, one-time carry forward operating funds, and net revenues from Enterprise Foundation for filming contracts” for the first four years of the university’s possession of the property. Since the fiscal year 2018-2019, the primary source of funding for maintenance has been the net revenue generated by filming on the property, according to the records.
“We do not use current day operating dollars, so tuition and fees, to do that,” said Michelle Cardona, interim vice president for administration and finance and CPP’s chief financial officer. “It is meant to be a self-sustaining operation and property, and that is how it’s set up both on the enterprise side and the state side.”
Salaries and benefits make up Lanterman’s largest operating expense
Operating expenses include the costs to cover maintenance and repairs, salary and benefits for safety and security personnel, consultant and adviser fees, legal services, utilities and other operating expenses. Of these expenses, more than half (approximately $8.9 million) fund salaries and benefits for safety and security personnel and other employees.
At the time of this story’s publication, The Poly Post is unaware how many people are employed at the Lanterman property, except for two rotating safety officers who guard the entrance to Lanterman 24/7 and two project management team members.
Benjamin Quillian was hired as a retired annuitant on the state-side, according to the revenue and expenses report notes. Quillian has been paid $489,000 for his work on the project management team since 2016. Since Quillian is a state retiree, he is only allowed to work a maximum of 960 hours within a fiscal year. Quillian is paid by CPP, not Foundation Enterprises.
Roberta Achtenberg, former chair of the CSU Board of Trustees and senior adviser to the secretary of the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration, has been a member of the project management team since 2020. Achtenberg has been paid a total of $151,000 for her work by Foundation Enterprises, not CPP.
Next steps for Lanterman
Before even acquiring the land, Lanterman was seen as an opportunity to expand programs where enrollment demands exceeded capacities on the main campus, according to the committee on Campus Planning, Building and Grounds. However, a housing demand analysis published for the property and the campus at large in September 2016 found 2,294 houses were needed on and around the campus, which shifted the focus toward building affordable housing.
During her interview with The Poly Post, Coley said this goal is even more important now given the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, which are expected to increase housing costs. Coley is against selling the property because she wants to ensure the cost of living stays affordable for displaced residents moving east toward CPP.
“I’m even more worried about what’s going to be for the future from the rippling effect of LA,” said Coley, whose 11-year presidency coincides with the campus’s acquisition and ownership of the property. “Let’s say that we sell it, and the developers develop it, then the cost of living for the same faculty that we’re concerned about being able to afford to live in this area is going to go out the window.”
Given Coley’s retirement announcement via email Feb. 4, it is unclear whether a new president will share her vision. According to the Lanterman Development Center analysis from June 2017, if developed, the residual value of the property could range from $20 to $360 million.
Feature image courtesy of Tom Zasadzinksi
