Upstate Film Production Push Faces Setback

New York’s tax credit production for filming is designed to bring studios to the state. Outside of New York City, however, challenges remain.

After only four years in business, the Upriver Studios production facility in Saugerties shuttered, the Times Union reported. The company moved out of its 101,000-square-foot space at the end of July.

The company, co-founded by actress Mary Stuart Masterson, attempted to lure Hollywood productions to Ulster County and found some success in doing so. Most notably, “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” was its first client.

But the company couldn’t overcome the difficulties of the film and television industry in recent years, including the pandemic and labor strikes, as it drew on $4.6 million in private debt and equity. The future of the building that housed the soundstages, owned by Peak Trading Corporation’s Kevin Pitcock, is uncertain.

“In four years we had, I think, 27 months where we could not have worked,” said Masterson, who recently was seen in the film “Five Night at Freddy’s.” She remained optimistic about the film industry upstate, despite her own studio’s struggle.

Questions will likely persist, however, about the draw of New York as a production destination, particularly outside of the five boroughs of New York City. The 2023 state budget increased the tax break cap for eligible productions to 30 percent, plus an additional 10 percent for those that flock upstate. The $700 million tax credit program is the state’s largest industry-specific break.

But a state report released in January found that for every dollar given via the tax break from 2018 to 2022, only 15 cents in direct tax revenue was generated. And after Upriver Studios’ closure, only one large-scale soundstage is left in the Hudson Valley.

As New York’s position in the filming landscape grows shaky, a next door neighbor is looking to steal the spotlight. New Jersey has seen an onslaught of productions since reviving its own tax credit program in 2018, which avails productions to an annual pot of $300 million.

— Holden Walter-Warner