NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams, together with labor leaders and industry members, broke ground on a new film and TV production campus in Sunnyside, Queens on Wednesday as part of his “Working People’s Tour.”
The construction of East End Studio Sunnyside – a $275 million project that is expected to create 1,000 construction jobs and 750 permanent, full-time jobs – complements the beginning of construction on another production studio at Pier 94 Manhattan last month.
“We’re thrilled to see East End Studios bringing more than 1,500 jobs to the city and joining the ecosystem of successful local production spaces that are continuing to elevate Western Queens as a worthy rival of Hollywood,” Adams said.
These developments are breaking ground as New York City’s film and TV industry, the employer of more than 185,000 New Yorkers, returns after the end of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes this fall.
Photo credit Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
“Now that writing services are a qualified, covered expense under the New York State Film Tax Credit Program, we are hopeful that more writers’ rooms will be located in New York, bringing more productions and filling soundstages like the new East End Studios Sunnyside Campus,” Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, president of Writers Guild of America (WGA) East, said.
The Sunnyside campus will be a 340,000 square-foot facility with three full-service soundstages and a flex-stage rooftop with views of Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.
This groundbreaking is a significant stop on Adams’ “Working People’s Tour,” an effort to create jobs and fuel the city’s economic recovery.
“With the development of the new East End Studios facility here in Queens, and the recent groundbreaking of Sunset Pier 94 Studios – the first purpose-built studio campus in Manhattan – last month, film and TV production continues to be a huge driver of New York City’s economy, providing good-paying jobs for New Yorkers across the five boroughs,” New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC President and CEO Andrew Kimball said.