SOUTH PORTLAND – Following almost two years of on-and-off negotiations with the city of South Portland, movie production veteran Eric Matheson has reached an agreement to construct and operate the Fore River Soundstage at the city-owned former National Guard Armory on Broadway.

The deal, reached in an executive session last week, brings to an end months of back and forth between city officials and Matheson as they worked to create a lease agreement. The Armory has been vacant since the city purchased the property in 2006. A plan to consider it as a site of a new city hall failed to gain momentum last year.

While he would not disclose the details of the lease agreement, Matheson, of Cape Elizabeth, said he was set to begin bringing his idea to fruition.

“Everything is moving forward. We are going ahead with the project,” said Matheson, a film set technician whose credits include “Amistad,” “Cider House Rules,” “The Crucible” and “Empire Falls.”

Matheson said the lease is just the first in a long line of paperwork that needs to be signed before the project can begin. He said he would like begin the work as soon as possible and be up and running by the fall. The City Council is expected to officially approve the lease agreement at a meeting May 2, according to Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis.

“We are very happy,” said Matheson, who is working with a group of investors on the project. “We are happy with the lease and are happy with the negotiations.”

De Angelis said she, too, is glad to finally have a deal in place.

“I am thrilled to have this done,” she said.

Matheson plans to start small at first and then gradually grow the project to reach his vision of a 10,000-square-foot soundstage with an additional17,000 square feet of office space.

Matheson said providing a small soundstage and office space for his business is the first step of his five-year plan to revitalize the property, which is now being used by the city for storage.

His vision, Matheson said, is to create a soundstage facility that would attract filmmakers to Maine. Because of the lack of tax incentives in the state, filmmakers have taken their work to other states that offer more incentives, such as Massachusetts.

“I think it could be a real economic boost for the city,” De Angelis said. “They feel they will have the work and projects to do in the location. I feel good about it.”

The building has been left vacant in recent years. The state sold the site to the Museum of Glass and Ceramics for $550,000 in 2002, but the museum went bankrupt in September 2005. The city outbid the Children’s Theatre of Maine and purchased the property for $650,000 in 2006. The building, which is in disrepair, is worth $266,000 and the property is worth $461,000, according to assessing records.

After months of negotiations, a deal has been reached to turn the former National Guard Armory on Broadway in South Portland into a soundstage. Eric Matheson, a veteran film set technician who lives in Cape Elizabeth, is behind the project. The City Council is expected to finalize the deal May 2. (File photo)