A company based in Pender County that provides equipment for major sports broadcasts and other events throughout the U.S. and internationally is expanding.

Filmwerks International Inc. is adding a 100,000-square-foot steel warehouse behind one of its current locations on Carver Road in Rocky Point. Martin Development Inc. crews are preparing the site, part of 15 acres the company purchased and had rezoned at least a year ago.

Filmwerks also already has a separate 70,000-square-foot facility in Rocky Point and depots for equipment throughout the U.S., including in Las Vegas, Dallas, New York and Nashville, Tennessee.
 
“Our growth has been significant and we just ran out of space so basically we’re going to build 100,000 square feet now, and we’ll have about 10 acres leftover to continue to expand if it’s needed,” said Michael Satrazemis, CEO and president of Filmwerks International.

Filmwerks has supplied equipment to the Super Bowl and was preparing trucks Friday to head to San Antonio for the NCAA Men's Final Four basketball tournament.

"We do all the electricity that it takes to do that broadcast and we do the sets from which they broadcast," Satrazemis said.

The film and event equipment rental firm serves clients, including major television networks, all over the U.S. with sometimes massive equipment that provides temporary power, lighting, air conditioning and staging.

The company traces its roots back to 1999, and in recent years has expanded rapidly because of the strength of the economy, the popularity of sports broadcasts and the excitement surrounding major sporting events.

"The sports industry has gone from just simply being a game played on Saturday or Sunday to essentially a spectacle where there's a weeklong series of activities and activation centers," Satrazemis said. "And so our business has grown because we're now accommodating not just football, basketball and baseball games, but we're building and supplying either power or structure or scenic elements to all of these ancillary sites that are set up."

The steel building that will be built for Filmwerks could cost more than originally planned, Satrazemis said, because of the 25 percent tariff President Donald Trump ordered Thursday on steel imports from every country except Mexico and Canada.

He said Filmwerks officials hope the building can be in place by the end of this year.

"We have structural elements and assets that need to be protected so we're putting them under a roof," Satrazemis said.