By Bill Parry
TimesLedger Newspapers
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Long Island City-based Silvercup Studios is so successful that a $1 billion expansion project, approved by Community Board 1 in 2014, still does not give it enough space. The Northeast’s leading independent film and production facility announced plans Monday to build a new studio complex in the Bronx as well.
Silvercup North is a $35 million project that will transform an existing modern warehouse, located in the Port Morris section of the Bronx, into a 115,000-square-foot full-service production facility. The Bronx complex will also feature four production studios with 50-foot-high ceilings, the highest of any film or TV studios in New York City.
The Silvercup West expansion project in Long Island City, which will bring a 2.2-million-square-foot film and TV production complex with eight sound stages, as well as residential and office towers, is expected to clean up its Brownsfield component alongside the Queensboro Bridge within a year. Silvercup North is scheduled to be completed by June 2016.
“For more than 30 years, Silvercup Studios has been an integral part of New York’s film and television production industry, which has never been more active than it is today,” Silvercup CEO Alan Suna said. “Girls,” “Elementary” and “Madam Secretary” are among the television series currently under production at the Long Island City facility.
In addition, the LIC project will include a full complement of shops, offices and other support space essential to support film and television production.
Dozens of major motion pictures including “When Harry Met Sally” and “The Devil Wears Prada” were filmed at Silvercup Studios.
The expansion would be a boost for the Bronx. Studio officials estimate that the project will create 400 well-paying production-industry jobs and an additional 100 construction jobs.
“The film and television industries have historically offered good jobs with pathways to success for New Yorkers, and the expansion of this thriving industry will be hugely meaningful to Bronxites,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Every year the production industry injects over $7.1 billion into our local economy and creates over 130,000 jobs in New York City, and thanks to Silvercup’s new studio, the Bronx will now receive its piece of the pie.”
Silvercup Studios opened in 1983 at the former home of Silvercup Bakery.
Suna credited Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New York State Film Tax Credit program, as well as the state Senate and Assembly, for helping to create the current boom in film and television production in the city.
“With additional studio space, more television shows and feature films that may have been filmed elsewhere can now take advantage of all the benefits of filming in New York,” he said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
©2015 Community News Group
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