Jones Lang LaSalle
Silvercup Studios Sets $1 Billion Complex
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
With New York City suddenly awash in film and television productions, Silvercup Studios has unveiled plans for a version of Hollywood on the East River, a $1 billion complex with soundstages, commercial space and housing on the Queens waterfront south of the Queensboro Bridge.
The six-acre project in Long Island City, which formally began wending its way through the city's land use review process yesterday, is called Silvercup West, an expansion of Silvercup's existing operation six blocks to the east, the home studio for television shows like "The Sopranos" and "Hope & Faith" and where many movies have been filmed.
If it is approved, the expansion would include eight soundstages, production and studio support space, offices for media and entertainment companies, stores, 1,000 apartments in high-rise towers, a catering hall and a yet-to-be-named cultural institution. Silvercup would easily be the largest production house on the East Coast, although Steiner Studios in Brooklyn has the largest single soundstage.
"With added studio space, more productions that may have been filmed elsewhere will now take advantage of all the benefits of filming in New York City," said Stuart Match Suna, who together with his brother Alan formed Silvercup in 1983. "In addition, we are creating a 24/7 live, work and leisure community."
The project was designed by an architect with his own marquee value: Lord Richard Rogers, best known for the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Millennium Dome in London.
Lord Rogers is also designing the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan. His plans in Queens also call for a plaza and a public waterfront esplanade.
In the latest example of the boom in television and film production in New York, Mr. Suna said there are now five television pilots taping at Silvercup, including "Ugly Betty," "Six Degrees" and "Kidnapped," as well as two movies for Warner Brothers. There would have been a third, he said, but there was not enough space.
"Mostly Martha," starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, and "Music and Lyrics By," with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, will be filmed at Silvercup this year.
Gone are the days when shows about New York like "Seinfeld" and "NYPD Blue" were shot in California. Last year, there were more than 100 new and returning TV shows taped in New York, according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.
New York attracted more than 250 independent and studio films in 2005, up from 202 in 2004 and 180 in 2003. The total number of days film crews spent shooting on location soared by 35 percent last year from 2004, to 31,570. And that number does not include additional work done at studios and soundstages, said Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner at the mayor's film office.
The Suna brothers and Hal G. Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria Studios, the city's original film studio, also in Queens, attribute the jump in activity to a joint city and state program that went into effect at the end of 2004 that offers tax incentives for films that complete 75 percent of their studio work in New York City.
"This town is fairly busy, so I think there's still room for growth," Mr. Rosenbluth said. "Tax credits have really worked."
Kaufman Studios, which is in talks to merge with Culver Studios, a Los Angeles-based production house, hopes to begin construction next year on its own long-awaited expansion.
At Steiner Studios, the $118 million production house on 15 acres at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, "The Producers" started filming before the five giant soundstages officially opened at the complex in November 2004. Since then, Spike Lee has shot "Inside Man" with Denzel Washington and Julie Taymor recently finished "Across the Universe."
Still, film and TV production is a tough business. Unlike office buildings that rent to tenants for 10 and 15 years at a time, soundstages are booked for weeks, or even days, at a time, and require a steady stream of new business to remain economically viable. The question remains: Can New York sustain this level of activity against competition from Canada and 20 other states and cities that offer tax breaks and other incentives?
Alan Suna, the chief executive of Silvercup, acknowledged that his two-million-square-foot project was ambitious but added that "it's also a very sensible project." The Silvercup expansion, he said, will incorporate the restoration of the landmark New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company building.
Trained as architects, the Sunas also have experience in developing housing, including the Renaissance project on 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
Mr. Suna said that the project was designed to be built entirely within two years, or in phases as demand dictates. It faces its first public hearing on April 6 at Community Board 2 in Long Island City.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
Silvercup Studios Sets $1 Billion Complex
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
With New York City suddenly awash in film and television productions, Silvercup Studios has unveiled plans for a version of Hollywood on the East River, a $1 billion complex with soundstages, commercial space and housing on the Queens waterfront south of the Queensboro Bridge.
The six-acre project in Long Island City, which formally began wending its way through the city's land use review process yesterday, is called Silvercup West, an expansion of Silvercup's existing operation six blocks to the east, the home studio for television shows like "The Sopranos" and "Hope & Faith" and where many movies have been filmed.
If it is approved, the expansion would include eight soundstages, production and studio support space, offices for media and entertainment companies, stores, 1,000 apartments in high-rise towers, a catering hall and a yet-to-be-named cultural institution. Silvercup would easily be the largest production house on the East Coast, although Steiner Studios in Brooklyn has the largest single soundstage.
"With added studio space, more productions that may have been filmed elsewhere will now take advantage of all the benefits of filming in New York City," said Stuart Match Suna, who together with his brother Alan formed Silvercup in 1983. "In addition, we are creating a 24/7 live, work and leisure community."
The project was designed by an architect with his own marquee value: Lord Richard Rogers, best known for the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Millennium Dome in London.
Lord Rogers is also designing the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side of Manhattan. His plans in Queens also call for a plaza and a public waterfront esplanade.
In the latest example of the boom in television and film production in New York, Mr. Suna said there are now five television pilots taping at Silvercup, including "Ugly Betty," "Six Degrees" and "Kidnapped," as well as two movies for Warner Brothers. There would have been a third, he said, but there was not enough space.
"Mostly Martha," starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, and "Music and Lyrics By," with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, will be filmed at Silvercup this year.
Gone are the days when shows about New York like "Seinfeld" and "NYPD Blue" were shot in California. Last year, there were more than 100 new and returning TV shows taped in New York, according to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting.
New York attracted more than 250 independent and studio films in 2005, up from 202 in 2004 and 180 in 2003. The total number of days film crews spent shooting on location soared by 35 percent last year from 2004, to 31,570. And that number does not include additional work done at studios and soundstages, said Julianne Cho, assistant commissioner at the mayor's film office.
The Suna brothers and Hal G. Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria Studios, the city's original film studio, also in Queens, attribute the jump in activity to a joint city and state program that went into effect at the end of 2004 that offers tax incentives for films that complete 75 percent of their studio work in New York City.
"This town is fairly busy, so I think there's still room for growth," Mr. Rosenbluth said. "Tax credits have really worked."
Kaufman Studios, which is in talks to merge with Culver Studios, a Los Angeles-based production house, hopes to begin construction next year on its own long-awaited expansion.
At Steiner Studios, the $118 million production house on 15 acres at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, "The Producers" started filming before the five giant soundstages officially opened at the complex in November 2004. Since then, Spike Lee has shot "Inside Man" with Denzel Washington and Julie Taymor recently finished "Across the Universe."
Still, film and TV production is a tough business. Unlike office buildings that rent to tenants for 10 and 15 years at a time, soundstages are booked for weeks, or even days, at a time, and require a steady stream of new business to remain economically viable. The question remains: Can New York sustain this level of activity against competition from Canada and 20 other states and cities that offer tax breaks and other incentives?
Alan Suna, the chief executive of Silvercup, acknowledged that his two-million-square-foot project was ambitious but added that "it's also a very sensible project." The Silvercup expansion, he said, will incorporate the restoration of the landmark New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company building.
Trained as architects, the Sunas also have experience in developing housing, including the Renaissance project on 116th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
Mr. Suna said that the project was designed to be built entirely within two years, or in phases as demand dictates. It faces its first public hearing on April 6 at Community Board 2 in Long Island City.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 4:49 PM
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