Bricks for flicks: NYC is a studio city thanks to a slew of new production palaces

Across the city, new film studios are rolling thanks to generous government incentives and escalating demand for content.New studios have opened or are underway in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Astoria, Long Island City, Yonkers and at the former Northrop Grumman facility on Long Island.In New Jersey, Netflix is creating a $848 million studio complex in Fort Monmouth.NYC is already home to about 60 qualified production facilities — defined by the Film Production Tax Credit Program — located in all five boroughs but concentrated in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Already, these facilities include around 2 million square feet of production space, and more are on the way.According to the most recent NYC Film and Television Industry Economic Impact Study 2021, the city’s film and TV sector supports 185,000 jobs, generates $18.1 billion in wages and contributes $81.6 billion in total economic output every year.It’s an industry boosted by the state’s production and post-production work tax credits, which have been funded through 2036 at $700 million a year and $45 million per year respectively.Plus, there’s another $5 million per year allocated for upstate, north of Westchester County.“We’re bullish that the recent tax credits are very helpful and seeing signs of the market rebounding and the overall industry rebounding,” said Travis Feehan, a co-founder of the Bungalow Projects in Red Hook and Bushwick that are still under development and received Industrial Development Agency incentives.While California has always been the world center of movie production, Hollywood now faces widespread competition.“Now other states are offering incentives, California is struggling and New York is thriving,” said Robert Gilman, CPA, who heads the real estate group at Anchin.City developers are also incentivized to build studios because they can lease what would otherwise be $30- to $50-a-foot industrial area space for around $100 per foot.“The new product is raising the...