They grow up so fast! We remember when Steiner Studios was just a baby and now it will soon become the biggest of the city's four studios. Thanks to a recent $90 million financing package Steiner will soon bump up its space from 310,000-square-feet to 590,000. Perfectly timed as film and TV (and web!) productions start to come back to town in earnest thanks to $420 million in State sales-tax credits through 2014.
Though the loss of city tax credits initially threatened production in town that seems to have passed thanks to, of all things, the real estate crisis, according to one studio. With less demand for large spaces, studios are able to pick up more footage.
And Steiner isn't the only local studio expanding, either. Silvercup is still getting its $1 billion its expansion and Kaufman Astoria Studios (once home to Paramount Pictures, way back when) opened a $22 million studio last year and has plans for an outdoor set.
Steiner currently has a whole slew of movies in production on its lot, including Men in Black III, The Adjustment Bureau and Mr. Popper's Penguins (for which it is currently hosting a tank of eight penguins!). It also is home to a bunch of webisodes, which apparently people actually watch.
Good news, we say. Not only does film in the city bring in $5 billion in economic impact (according to the mayor's office) but it also gives us endless entertainment spotting New York locations on screen. Like last night on The Good Wife when a scene in a "Chicago" park was screamingly obviously shot in our fair metropolis.
