Vancouver: Meier Worldwide Intermedia, a studio management company that operates the huge A-Frame studio in Delta, b.c., is facing eviction.

According to Barry Ferguson, the sole owner of the 12-acre parcel that includes a 65,000-square-foot studio and a new 115,000-square-foot expansion studio, Meier Worldwide owes him $410,000 in back rent as of Oct. 1.

He says Meier Worldwide took over the lease of the site in August ’97 and during the eviction proceedings in September was able to get a temporary injunction against eviction. A court decision is expected early this month.

‘They never built the building, they never owned the building, all they did was rent the building,’ says Ferguson, who claims he’s stood in the background while Meier principal Jim Meier has worked to promote his company in Hollywood and list it on nasdaq’s over-the-counter stock market in the u.s.

The Disney film The 13th Warrior (aka Eaters of the Dead) was shot at the A-Frame last summer.

In an interview after the injunction was won, Meier claimed that his company is current with rent payments for the original stage, but that Ferguson hasn’t obtained an occupancy permit to work in the expansion.

Dennis Rudd, who operates Meier subsidiary GG Studios, says film crews can’t get insurance to work in the extension until the city deems it ‘safe.’

Ferguson insists that productions can work in the expansion as long as the deficiencies list set by city building inspectors is addressed. He says the television miniseries Titanic was shot that way in the original stage.

The City of Delta confirms that the studio expansion does not yet have an occupancy permit.