By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – After occupying the St. John the Baptist Parish Community Center for more than 18 months, the production company filming the TNT network cop drama “Memphis Beat” is in the process of moving out following the recent cancellation of the show after two seasons.

According to the entertainment magazine Variety, the show starring Jason Lee as a Memphis detective and diehard Elvis fan who moonlighted as a lounge singer struggled to find a solid audience and often suffered from a bit of an identity crisis as it regularly swayed from comedy to drama. Producers also said the average of 3 million viewers per episode was not enough to justify the expense of the show.

Although the move out has already begun, St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom said the production company, Warner Horizon, paid rent on use of the community center soundstage through December, but the move leaves the 47,000-square-foot facility vacant and gives the parish the opportunity to decide on the future of the 5-year-old building.

“We have to make some decisions regarding what we want to do next,” Robottom said. “We either go full force as a soundstage, or make it into a facility that the community can use regularly. It cannot continue to operate as both.”

Robottom said the show’s time in the parish produced a fairly hefty financial windfall for businesses in the area as well as the community center. In addition to more than $500,000 paid in rental fees to occupy the community center, the production company spent roughly $700,000 in fuel, hotel rooms, security details and materials needed for sets just in 2011 alone.

“Their crews were going to our businesses and spending a great deal of money here,” Robottom said. “We raised rental rates, and they paid it with no problem. There was no shortage of money spent by the company.”

The future of the community center will be a topic of discussion in the coming months between parish administrators and the council, Robottom said. She said the parish is not aggressively seeking a new production to take the show’s place until a decision is made on what to do with the building.

“It is a beautiful building, and it has served as an excellent facility for us, but we need to establish a specific use,” Robottom said.

“If we decide that the facility will continue to operate as a soundstage, we need to look at using any profits made on the building to construct a facility that the residents can use and afford. We also need to analyze our rental rates to see how they compare with similar facilities and market it for what it is,” she said.

Robottom said the parish has also received a grant for the building that must be used by February, and the parish plans to use that money on the community center’s air conditioning system. She said the parish wants to improve the way the building is heated and cooled.

“We want to segment the AC so that only the portions being used are being cooled,” Robottom said.

“If a group wants to use the atrium portion, they don’t want to have to cool the entire building. This will make it a little easier for some residents to afford,” she added