Kaufman Astoria Studios is planning to build two new soundstages totaling more than 24,000 square feet at its Astoria complex, the production studio said Wednesday.
With demand for film and TV production space in New York having grown, Kaufman Astoria is looking to construct the new soundstages on the corner of 34th Avenue and 36th Street in the Queens neighborhood – pushing its total number of stages to 12.
The new stages will be located in a single four-story building, according to Crain’s, meaning they can accommodate either a single large production or two separate, smaller ones. One stage, Stage O, will span nearly 15,400 square feet, while the other, Stage N, will be nearly 8,700 square feet.
The building — which will rise on a site currently used for truck parking — will also have around 26,000 square feet of ancillary production space, 45,000 square feet of upper-floor office space, and an underground parking garage. Kaufman Astoria plans to break ground this fall and complete the building within 18 to 24 months.
The boom in entertainment production in New York is largely due to a $420 million annual tax credit provided by the state, which has helped increase the city’s popularity as a shooting location.
Recent films shot at Kaufman Astoria include the Jodie Foster-directed “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, while TV shows filmed at the studio include Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black” and Showtime’s “The Affair.”
Last year, Douglas Steiner’s Steiner Studios filed plans for a new 179,000-square-foot building holding six soundstages at its 26-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard complex – the largest film and TV production studio on the East Coast. [Crain’s] – Rey Mashayekhi