Flanked by labor leaders and companions from the movie and TV trade, New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams final Wednesday was joined by New York Metropolis Financial Growth Company (NYCEDC) President and CEO Andrew Kimball, Mayor’s Workplace of Media and Leisure (MOME) Commissioner Pat Kaufman, and East Finish Studios to interrupt floor on a movie and TV-ready manufacturing studio in Sunnyside, Queens that may create almost 1,000 building jobs and roughly 750 everlasting, full-time jobs.
The town’s movie and TV manufacturing trade employs greater than 185,000 New Yorkers, Adams stated.
He stated the beginning of building — which follows an identical milestone at one other campus at Pier 94 Manhattan — kicks off the return of the town’s movie and TV manufacturing trade, after the Display screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Author’s Guild for America (WGA) ended their respective strikes this fall.
It additionally marks a key cease on Mayor Adams’ “Working Folks’s Tour,” persevering with to create jobs and energy New York Metropolis’s financial restoration after the town set an all-time excessive job file with 4.7 million whole jobs, recovering the almost 1 million jobs misplaced through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Due to SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America securing honest offers for his or her employees, movie and TV manufacturing is again in New York Metropolis — serving to greater than 185,000 New Yorkers get again to work,” stated Mayor Adams. “New York Metropolis is again, however our work shouldn’t be finished till each New Yorker has a pathway to success.
“We’re thrilled to see East Finish Studios bringing greater than 1,500 jobs to the town and becoming a member of the ecosystem of profitable native manufacturing areas which can be persevering with to raise Western Queens as a worthy rival of Hollywood,” he added.
“As we proceed our Working Folks’s Tour in celebration of hitting a brand new all-time job file in New York Metropolis, we’re thrilled our unions and studios have reached agreements and we welcome the return of movie and TV manufacturing — a significant part of New York Metropolis’s Economic system,” stated Deputy Mayor for Housing, Financial Growth, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. “The East Finish Studios Sunnyside Campus will construct on New York Metropolis’s robust basis of native manufacturing amenities that retains world-leading productions and a family-sustaining jobs in New York Metropolis.”
“NYCEDC celebrates the East Finish Studios Sunnyside Campus groundbreaking and is thrilled with the progress made on this new state-of-the-art film- and TV-ready manufacturing studio that was simply introduced over the summer time,” stated NYCEDC President and CEO Kimball.
“With the event of the brand new East Finish Studios facility right here in Queens, and the current groundbreaking of Sundown Pier 94 Studios — the primary purpose-built studio campus in Manhattan — final month, movie and TV manufacturing continues to be an enormous driver of New York Metropolis’s economic system, offering good-paying jobs for New Yorkers throughout the 5 boroughs,” he added.
“As we speak’s groundbreaking on the new East Finish Studios Sunnyside Campus shouldn’t be solely a sign of this metropolis’s dedication to the way forward for our world-famous movie and TV trade, but additionally a second to have fun the historic decision of the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike,” stated MOME Commissioner Kaufman. “Mixed with the current enlargement of the New York state movie tax credit score, right this moment’s groundbreaking will function an financial driver for native companies, create jobs for New Yorkers, and additional our metropolis’s repute as a world artistic capital.”
“New York Metropolis has profound unmet demand for best-in-class, absolutely built-in stage campuses. Our Sunnyside Campus will present an elevated commonplace of workflow that doesn’t exist in any New York Metropolis stage right now,” stated Jonathon Yormak, founding associate, East Finish Studios.
“East Finish Studios is exceptionally proud to take part within the metropolis’s ever-growing place within the manufacturing panorama,” he added. “We’re honored to acknowledge right this moment’s milestone with our valued companions on the New York Metropolis Financial Growth Company, the New York Metropolis Industrial Growth Company, and the Mayor’s Workplace of Media and Leisure.”
Adams stated the East Finish Studios Sunnyside Campus shall be a 340,000-square-foot, Class A facility with three full-service, ground-floor soundstages totaling 75,000 sq. ft.
The mission additionally homes a 15,000-square-foot rooftop flex-stage that provides sweeping views of the Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan skylines.
The mayor stated the levels are supported by 125,000 sq. ft of manufacturing, workplace and mill areas.
Like all of East Finish Studios’ tasks, he stated the Sunnyside facility shall be absolutely built-in with prolonged actuality and digital actuality infrastructure, together with the potential to shoot on a digital stage and high-speed fiber connectivity with scalable production-level web.
The mission — with a complete price of about $275 million — is predicted to be accomplished by the primary quarter of 2025.
The New York Metropolis Industrial Growth Company— which helps enterprise progress, relocation, and enlargement throughout the 5 boroughs by reducing the price of capital funding — offered monetary assist.
Adams stated New York Metropolis’s movie and TV trade has grown considerably during the last decade, supporting 185,000 jobs, producing over $18 billion in wages, and contributing greater than $82 billion in financial affect.
After struggling through the pandemic, he stated the town’s arts and leisure sector continues to point out constructive momentum in its jobs restoration beneath his administration — rising almost 16 p.c between Could 2022 and Could 2023 — and recovering almost 46,000 jobs for the reason that begin of the pandemic.
“The WGA East is dedicated to supporting a movie and tv group that may thrive and create jobs right here in New York,” stated Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, president, Writers Guild of America (WGA) East. “Now that writing providers are a certified, lined expense beneath the New York State Movie Tax Credit score Program, we’re hopeful that extra writers’ rooms shall be positioned in New York, bringing extra productions and filling soundstages like the brand new East Finish Studios Sunnyside Campus.”
“Theatrical Teamsters Native 817 is worked up about East Finish Studios coming on-line,” stated Tom O’Donnell, president, Theatrical Teamsters Native 817. “Its opening additional cements New York Metropolis because the go-to location for episodic manufacturing.”
“I’m a proud graduate of the ‘Made in NY’ Manufacturing Assistant coaching program, which opened the door for me 11 years in the past into New York Metropolis’s movie and TV trade and I’ve by no means regarded again,” stated Julian “Jay” Montoya, graduate, Made in NY. “Thank goodness that the strikes are over in order that this new studio, positioned proper right here in Sunnyside, Queens, can present alternatives for me to work.”
