A giant film and production hub planned for Brooklyn should create upwards of 1,800 new construction jobs and millions of dollars of business for minority and women-owned construction companies.
Steiner Studios plans to open a second film and television production facility in Sunset Park, occupying 500,000 sq. ft.
The project site will be at the Made in NY campus at Bush Terminal, which is already under construction for garment manufacturing, CBS-2 has reported. Private investment will be $320 million, with the city contributing $15 million for preparation work.
“We have eight sound stages of about 16,000 feet each,” the broadcaster quoted Steiner Studios chairman Doug Steiner as saying. “There are two buildings of 140,000 feet that will be gut renovated. They’re historic structures,” Steiner spoke at the company’s Brooklyn Navy Yard location, where movies and TV shows are filmed.
“When we started this project in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1999, all I heard was no one will ever go to Brooklyn. That’s been turned on its head, thank God,” Steiner said.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the city’s Office of Media and Entertainment said the hub will create thousands of jobs, with an emphasis on diversity. The city expects 25 percent of the construction work will go to minority and women-owned businesses.
“It also creates opportunities for apprenticeships for local people in the neighborhood of access to jobs, both in this studio and the industry across New York City,” said NYCEDC president James Patchett.
Ground is expected to be broken in about 18 months.
