Get Netflix on speed dial.
iPark, an entity of longtime tri-state area developer National Resources, purchased a 28-acre campus in Yonkers to build a production facility.
The real estate firm bought the former Leake & Watts campus at 463 Hawthorne Avenue from nonprofit Rising Ground for $52.6 million, the New York Post reported.
Great Point Studios, which partnered with iPark on the development of a Lionsgate production hub in the same Westchester County city, is a partner in this purchase as well.
The massive campus, which overlooks the Hudson River, has 265,000 square feet of built space across 25 buildings, as well as a baseball field, an indoor basketball court and indoor and outdoor pools. Critically, the site also includes 2 million square feet of development rights, some of which will be used to add film studio space.
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Another major component of the project will be a performing arts school in the 100,000-square-foot Biondi Education Center. The school will cater to children grades 6 to 12 and feature a curriculum built by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
The school is expected to open in 2024. The city of Yonkers will rent the space for $3 million per year.
Rising Ground retained three acres adjacent to the south side of the campus for its own programs, which annually support 25,000 people in need.
The company was founded in Manhattan nearly two centuries ago as the Leaks & Watts Orphan House, which moved to Yonkers in the late 19th century. Its campus was part of the 74-acre Fonthill Estate; the company changed its name to Rising Ground in 2018.
An OPEN Impact Real Estate team including Lindsay Ornstein and Stephen Powers represented the nonprofit in the sale.
National Resources has developed more than $2 billion worth of real estate over 30 years, according to its website, which lists numerous projects in the northern suburbs, Hudson Valley and Connecticut. Many are apartment complexes on the Hudson River.
— Holden Walter-Warner