October 24, 2023
Deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer, Housing, Economic Development and Workforce: All right. We’re going to get started in just a few seconds, if everyone can take a seat. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Maria Torres‑Springer. I’m the deputy mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce. Welcome to everyone who has joined us here today, extraordinary partners in government, in the public sector.
This today is the second stop of our administration’s Working People’s Tour. This tour is in celebration of New York City reaching a record 4.7 million jobs just last week. This number reflects the nearly one million private sector jobs recovered since the lows of the pandemic and highlights the success of our administration’s inclusive economic agenda, which really does aim to ensure that all New Yorkers from all walks of life benefit from the city’s economic prosperity.
Today — and we’ll be joined just shortly by the mayor — I’m incredibly excited to join everyone in breaking ground on Sunset Pier 94 Studios, an important economic development project; and yet again, another example of a long stalled project that our Get Stuff Done administration is making happen to deliver results for New Yorkers.
Before we bring up partners in this work, I do want to just describe how this initiative fits into our economic agenda. So, like our transformative efforts at Willets Point in Queens, SPARC Kips Bay, the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, the Climate Center on Governors Island, we are advancing a bold slate of economic development projects spanning the entire city that will create tens of thousands of family sustaining jobs in all ZIP codes across a multitude of growing industries. And the activation Pier 94 is no different and will bring the same type of strategy, the same type of energy to the west side of Manhattan to a public asset that has long been crumbling and is vacant.
Now, we anticipate opening the project by the end of 2025, creating 1,700 new jobs and generating more than six billion in economic impact. And as we begin to look to New York City’s future economy, we have to make sure that we remain the center for arts, entertainment and recreation. Sunset Pier 94 Studios is instrumental in this effort and will not only deliver a state of the art facility but also provide many benefits to the local community including new waterfront open space, bikeway improvements and other community facility space.
Along with the improvements to the public realm, the project will also connect local New Yorkers to opportunities in film, TV and media production through a $250,000 investment in workforce development training led by our industry partners. So, I want to thank everyone here today who has really worked so hard to reach this milestone and is committed to growing our economy for all New Yorkers.
I’d like to invite our first speaker here today. You know, this work of not just building projects but really transforming entire neighborhoods of our city, we cannot do it alone, we have to do that in partnership; and when that happens, what we’re really seeing is a vote being cast for the future of New York. It’s a vote of confidence not just in this neighborhood, not just in this asset, but really for New Yorkers.
And so I’d like to thank all of our private sector partners who are helping us make this happen; and to speak on their behalf, I’d like to introduce Victor Coleman, the CEO of Hudson Pacific Properties. Victor.
Victor Coleman, CEO, Hudson Pacific Properties: Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Good afternoon, everybody. This is extremely exciting for all of us. This will be the best studio facility in America when it’s done, right here in Manhattan. So, congratulations.
On behalf of my partners here behind me, I’m very fortunate to have Blackstone and Vornado as the lead partners on this project. Their expertise, friendship and professionalism is going to bring this over the top to make this project exactly what you want it to be, the best ever. So, we’re thrilled to be breaking ground here today. This is something that’s been in the works between all of us for at least three years. And you know what? This campus in Manhattan is going to be something else when it’s all said and done.
I’m going to take a moment and just run through a bunch of people that without their help this never would have gotten done. First and foremost, Deputy Mayor of Housing, Economic Development and Workforce, Maria Torres‑Springer.
He’s not here, but EDC President Andrew Kimball and Chief Operating Officer Melissa Román Burch. Fantastic work, thank you so much. Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Pat Kaufman. Thank you. The Manhattan borough president, Mark Levine. Councilmember Eric Bottcher. Senator Brad Hoylman‑Sigal. Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal. Community Board 4 Chairperson Jeffrey LeFrancois, and the whole community board for all of their hard work and constructive feedback on that.
Hudson River President and CEO Noreen Doyle and her entire staff in collaboration for working with us and all the neighbors in the community.
I’d also like to acknowledge our partners, the three of us as partners on the financing side led by RBC and as well the unbelievable design which you will see from Gensler Partners. Fantastic, super sexy project you’re going to see that soon to come. So, thank you all.
Finally, just on the thanks on the Vornado side. The working team on Vornado, they made this possible, so thank you, Barry, Frank, Dan and Julian. And specifically, as I said, our EDC partners and the city Law Department, [inaudible], Greg, Judy, Bill for their tireless work in getting this project to the point, and from this point on, to the finish line. So, thank you all very much.
As the deputy mayor said, this is going to be a $350 million investment into Manhattan to make Pier 94 Studios a first of its kind. It’s going to be home for the state of the art facility with all the new technology and the most competitive aspects for filming and production on all forms of content worldwide.
As all New Yorkers are going to benefit from this, 25,000 new square feet of waterfront at the back of the space is going to be open to the public. New restrooms. We’re going to have on the Hudson River an 1,850 square foot community amenity place here; and in addition, we are going to improve the bikeway as well. So, this is going to be a fantastic new add for the entire area and the city of Manhattan. It’s a first of its kind. There is no purpose‑built studio in Manhattan, believe it or not. This will be the first of its kind.
My company, Hudson Pacific, we’ve been in the studio business for 15 years, and we’ve always wanted to get into New York. This is a dream come true for our company, this is a dream come true for our partnerships. Blackstone and us have looked at forming Sunset Studios now for several years. This is what we strive for: quality, the best in class and something that I know will leave a lasting impact for the City of New York.
So, when I first got a phone call from my longtime friends at Vornado who I’ve known for over 20 years, three years ago in the makings, they said this is an opportunity for us to do something good for the city, and damn right, they were on it and so are we. So, congratulations. Thank you for coming out, and thank you, deputy mayor for leading the way.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you so much, Victor. I’d like to acknowledge and we’ve also been joined by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal.
Our next speaker, I’m sure it is music to her ears when we shared — and it will now become reality — the fact that there will be Manhattan’s first purpose‑built film and TV production studio, and she’s really leading our efforts to grow and support a major industry here in New York that has 185,000 jobs and tens of billions in economic impact.
And so please join me in welcoming the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Pat Kaufman.
Commissioner Pat Kaufman, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment: You know, I’ve been in this business for a long, long time. Before I was the city film commissioner I was the state film commissioner, and I will tell you that the entire time that I’ve been working in this industry everyone was clamoring for, we’ve got to get a purpose‑built stage in New York, and we want to get stages on these piers.
No one could get it done until now, until you guys worked together; and of course, until our wonderful Mayor Eric Adams came along, and then suddenly the magic happened, and here we are. I’m thrilled that this is going on.
You grabbed one of my best lines that I’m here representing the film and television production industry, an industry, and I just love saying it, so I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to repeat it, an industry that generates $82 billion of economic activity every single year and creates and provides jobs for 185,000 people. Astonishing, right? That’s film and television in New York.
So, we are a powerhouse industry, just like all of you folks that build buildings and do financing and all of that sort of stuff. So, it’s exciting to be here and watch as something like this stage is coming forward.
You know, know this industry creates not only jobs for the people that are working on the set — the actors, the crew and all of that — but also in the ancillary businesses that support the industry. Somebody has to go get the lumber to build the sets. Somebody has to clean all the costumes. Somebody has to have the flowers that might be used in a scene. So, it’s a wonderful creation of jobs.
But in addition to those obvious jobs that the industry creates, we also are very powerful in that we attract people to New York. All the scenes that you see on your screens, whether they’re big screens, little screens, you’ll watch, when those scenes are about New York and New York City, that makes people want to come to New York and experience New York.
They want to live in New York, they want to work in New York, they want to visit New York and they want to do all the great things that are so much fun in New York and spend money on it. So, that contributes also to the power and the economic activity.
Granted, the last few years we’ve been hit pretty hard, everyone has been hit pretty hard with the pandemic and all the difficulties that it brought. And now of course our… I say “our industry,” the film and television production industry, has been hit very hard by the strikes. But we are thrilled that finally, today, the negotiators are back at the table and we’re very hopeful that very quickly we’re going to get a good result of all of this work and a fair and equitable solution is going to be found.
And once that happens, we are really expecting a rush of new production. We’ve got the expanded tax credit, film production tax credit that’s going to attract productions; and now, we’re going to have a new, fabulous, purpose‑built stage that’s going to enable us to service all the production that’s going to come.
So, this stage is going to be a boon to the industry, production industry, is going to be a boon to the local economy, is going to be a boon to the small business, it’s going to be a boon to all of us. So, it really will help us continue to build on our dream. It will, [first of all], will keep the city the crown jewel of the industry, the production industry in this country. But it’s also going to help us make sure that New York remains the extraordinary production hub that it’s been and we want it to continue to be.
We like to say that when film and TV production industry thrives, New York City thrives, and that’s what’s about to happen. So, as you guys finish the great work that you are doing and you finish these stages that are going to be so extraordinary, that’s when my and my team’s work really begins, because we are going to be out there recruiting the production that are going to come here and be so excited about having what this production facility is going to offer.
So, thank you so much for the work that you’re doing and the vision you’ve got and all of the changes that it will bring about. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you, commissioner. I’d now just like to ask Andrew Kimball to share a few words because it’s so important that this is the type of project that advances with the type of speed that it deserves. But before Andrew speaks, I would like to pivot, because our mayor has joined us.
And you know, when we started we inherited a lot of projects, some of them were long stalled. And it was very important to the mayor, and he gave us our marching orders, that we not just identify what those long stalled projects are but that we worked quickly to problem solve and to make sure that we reverse those trajectories, and this project here at Pier 94 is a perfect example of that. So, please join me in welcoming the 110th mayor of New York City, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Real excitement in the air, and it’s just a continuation as we’re doing this Working People’s Tour with deputy Mayor Maria Torres‑Springer and just showing how this city could continue to come back in a real way. And we don’t do it alone. January 1st, 2022, when I took office, I started calling up our major corporations, bringing our teams into the room and just sending the right message, government has no business being in your business.
Government is supposed to support business. When businesses are doing well, it allows people to be employed. And we were very clear, it was a triangle offense. It was about public space, about investing in people and about being safe. If people felt safe, they would get back on the subways and get back into our office spaces, visit our restaurants, tourists will come here.
If we dealt with the over proliferation of guns on our street. We were trending in the wrong direction, we’re moving in the right direction. Major crime categories are decreasing, four million subway riders are back on the subway system. And we’re watching our businesses return.
We have more jobs — more jobs in our city — in the history of New York City. People said it was going to take five years, they did not understand those three letters: get stuff done. And we’re getting stuff done every day. This is the greatest city on the globe. Everybody argues about two and three, nobody argues about number one. New York is the number one city on the globe, and we have been beaten down to believe we have to take second place to others.
Not under this administration. 20 months, this city has turned around. We’re not coming back, New York City is back and we’re going to continue to move in the right direction. I want to thank Vornado with their fearless leader, you know, we met the other day, we were talking. This is what, you know, hardcore Brooklynite street guys can do, they build from the bottom up. And real good stuff. Reality Trust and Hudson Pacific Projects, Pacific company as well. EDC, Andrew Kimball, putting more shovels in the ground than you could ever imagine, and we want to continue to do so.
First of its kind. I want you to, each time you hear us say first of its kind, first of its kind, first of its kind. This administration has been rolling out so many first of its kind, first time in history, first time in history, over and over again with an amazing team of New Yorkers.
And you know what? We get stuff done because we have a New York attitude. We’re not taking any mess. It’s about showing who we are as a city. We lost our umph, we lost our power, we lost the feeling of what it is to be a New Yorker. It’s a privilege to be a New Yorker. Let those cats go to Miami all they want. We want the best right here. It’s a privilege to be living in this great city called New York City.
This project, $350 million in private investment, believing in city. Came here, a minus AA bond rating, we’re now at a AA. We continue to [inaudible] in the right places, and that’s why investors are saying we want to invest in New York City, and this is a $350 million private investment, 1,700 jobs, 1,300 good paying union jobs, $6.4 billion in economic opportunity in the next three years.
So, we have to keep it going. I need SAG and our studios, we need to sign the deal. We need those 185,000 workers back into our economy. So, let’s get this signed, let’s get this deal, let’s get some great movies here in Manhattan, great office spaces, great opportunities for people to enjoy this amazing waterfront.
When you have great populations in the waterfront, it brings back the energy to the city. And listen, job well done to all of my electeds here, to all of our teams here. This is how we can get stuff done, bring our city to the direction that we want. Great job, deputy mayor, keep doing it.
Deputy Mayor Torres‑Springer: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, mayor. And knowing Andrew as well as I do, I know he’s a man of action and would prefer that we go ahead with the actual groundbreaking than more remarks, but I’ll just close by saying it’s a fantastic day for Sunset Pier 94. Thanks to all of you for all of your tremendous efforts, and we can’t wait until 2025. We’ll see you all back here when we open this amazing facility. Thanks to all of you.
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