The non-profit theater organization that runs the city’s TKTS discount ticket booths is taking its 75,000-piece costume collection to Queens after being priced out of the 13,000-square-foot Starrett-Lehigh Building space in Chelsea that has housed it for the past 35 years. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Theatre Development Fund will move in the fall to a lower-rent, 16,000-square-foot space at Kaufman Astoria Studios, where film and television shows like “Men in Black III” and “The Smurfs” have been shot. Perkins Eastman, the architecture firm that designed the new TKTS booth in Times Square, plans to gut and custom-design the space in order to accommodate TDF’s unusual garment collection, which has grown over the years through donations from Broadway, Off-Broadway, opera and television and film productions since the 1970s. [more]

While the commercial market has taken plenty of hits in the last few years, George Kaufman, chairman of commercial real estate property owner the Kaufman Organization, thinks the time is right to buy in New York City. Kaufman told the New York Times that the “markets will only get better” from where they are right now, and said that his company is “looking for opportunities wherever they come from.” Kaufman did not specify what particular properties he’s looking to buy, but said that now is “a good opportunity to grow.” [more]

The Astoria studio that houses “Sesame Street” won the approval of its local community board Tuesday in a plan that would de-map 36th Street between 34th and 35th avenues and turn the block into an outdoor movie set. According to the Daily News, Kaufman Astoria Studios would lease the block, which is adjacent to its own building, from the city. While some neighbors worried about the increased traffic and congestion that could result from the street closures, the idea behind the outdoor expansion is to make the studio more competitive with sets in Los Angeles, which would in turn create jobs related to the production of major films and shows, according to studio head Hal Rosenbluth and Julie Wood of the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Wood said the studio’s lease would run through 2049 and although she wouldn’t provide the rental rate, she said it would be “a significant investment.” The proposal will move next to the office of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall for review before going before the City Planning Commission and then, the City Council. [NYDN]

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Raizy Haas, SVP at Extell

Construction has started at the Balton and Douglass Park, two new affordable housing developments in Harlem. The two new apartment buildings will consume almost an entire city block between 127th and 128th streets and St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Meanwhile, Kaufman Astoria Studios, the 17-year home of Sesame Street, has become the largest commercial user of a bio-diesel-blended heating oil known as METRO’s Greenheat, according to a press release from the two entities sent today, and Los Angeles-based Mesa West Capital has opened a New York City office. Also, The last two remaining residences at 995 Fifth Avenue will be marketed jointly by Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group and Gumley Haft Kleier, according to an announcement made by the Extell Development, who is behind the project. Raizy Haas, senior vice president at Extell, said that her company brought Gumley on board because of its industry connections and successful track record at other Extell properties. Click here for more. TRD [more]

The Muppets Creature Shop is moving to 37-18 Northern Boulevard

Muppet makers at Jim Henson Co. are moving from their Soho office at
627 Broadway to a 12,000-square-foot space in Long Island City, at
37-18 Northern Boulevard. According to the broker, Jim DeLuca of Cushman
& Wakefield, incentives were key for the Creature Shop — which
designs and constructs all the Muppets like Kermit the Frog and Elmo –
and they were able to cut $6 a foot off the low-$20s a foot rent. In
the Soho space, the company’s renewal was proposed at $50 a square foot
last summer, but fell to $35 per square foot by the last offer. DeLuca
said the incentives, plus a freight elevator and a two-block stroll to
Kaufman Astoria Studios where Sesame Street is filmed, helped to seal
the seven-year Long Island City deal. [more]

From the July issue: Soaring high above the Queensboro Bridge, the giant Silvercup Studios logo stands like a sentinel over the beige brick building where many iconic modern films were made. Amid half-empty warehouses and taxi parking garages, this slice of Long Island City is where the Devil put on Prada, Harry met Sally and the Godfather met his end. But the growth of the entertainment industry in the city is facing some tough realities, with space fetching a bigger premium than stardom. Demand is reaching record levels for shooting in the city, and Silvercup and New York’s two other major studios — Steiner Studios and Kaufman Astoria Studios — are planning to add about 979,000 more square feet of studio space to the city’s current 1.21 million square feet, bringing the total to 2.19 million square feet. more By Sushil Cheema