Jack Matthews Gets 2013 TXMPA Business Leader Award

Jack Matthews was presented with the first-ever TXMPA Business Leader Award at this year’s DFW SAG Awards Viewing Party in a segment also seen in Houston and Austin. This gesture allows SAG-AFTRA to publicly cement a relationship that has gone largely unnoticed by the entire industry for the better part of 20 years.

Matthews, a Canadian developer who has been actively creating large real estate projects in the North Texas area since the early 1990s, first became an ally to the industry by allowing his properties to be used as locations for Walker: Texas Ranger, the CBS series. Over the years, his assistance grew to include additional locations, housing, production offices, casting offices and warehouses for production companies.

In addition to the Walker series, he then also assisted Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire, the CBS movie. Other projects include The Good Guys and Lone Star from FOX, Chase from NBC, and GCB from ABC. A few big-budget films and many independent films, commercials, music videos, print shoots and musical recording projects have benefited from his company, or its association with other companies, such as Omni Hotels and Resorts, and NYLO Hotels.

An enormous boost to production in North Texas came when The Good Guys needed to relocate its production center and offices. An old warehouse owned by Matthews in the South Side on Lamar area was pulled into use, with some public funds supplied by the City of Dallas, and soon we had the beginnings of a film studio only minutes from downtown Dallas. The South Side Studios continued to flourish and became a major draw as the City of Dallas fought to attract TNT’s new show Dallas.

With Dallas here for its second season, South Side Studios is booming. Not only is it a soundstage, but now it is a working studio with production offices, casting, wardrobe, hair and makeup, electrical, carpentry and transportation services, all in a secure location. Many of the cast and crew are able to stay in housing at nearby South Side on Lamar or in hotels that Jack Matthews built, The Omni Dallas Hotel downtown and NYLO Dallas South Side.

If you worked on any of these shows, or even auditioned for them, you benefited from the work of Jack Matthews. He and his company Matthews Southwest continue to support production because Matthews believes that in creating urban fabric, the arts are a necessary component. When arts are present, otherwise boring and uninspiring places can come to life. Artists create an atmosphere that cannot be falsified. This, in turn, pushes more production into place.

Dallas Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez, who often has to field issues related to economic development, said, Jack “has been the critical difference in making possible the recent growth of the industry here.”

As an industry, we tend to look inward for support. We approach the same groups, organizations and individuals when getting a project or event off the ground. The relationship we built with Jack Matthews should be a cue to look for other community leaders who can support production with their own abilities, and who will benefit from working with productions here.

This is the challenge for us all in Austin, Houston, Dallas and throughout Texas: To identify key people outside our own industry, and partner with them to increase jobs and strengthen production in the state.

The more we reach beyond our immediate circle of industry people, the easier it will be to hear those wonderful words, “Roll camera!”

This item was originally featured in the April 2013 local newsletter.