In a ceremony with more thank yous than any Oscar or Emmy awards, state and local officials joined production executives to announce that they would build a $125 million state-of-the-art film and television studio leased by Lionsgate in Newark.
Officials said filming and taping could begin at the 300,000-square-foot studio as early as the fourth quarter of 2024. The studio is planned for the former site of the Seth Boyden Court public housing complex in Newark’s heavily industrial South Ward.
Gov. Phil Murphy, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and executives of the entertainment development firm Great Point Studios gathered at the site amid the piles of broken brick that still occupy the 15-acre property along Frelinghuysen Avenue.
Framed by the arched steel arms of two backhoes used in the demolition of the 530-unit apartment complex, Murphy told a story about weighing his initial bid for governor in 2017 and a meeting he had with leaders of a labor union.
“And the union had a very smart, perceptive guy who said to me, ‘What did you want to do when you were in college?’” Murphy said. “I said, ‘You know what, I very seriously considered becoming an actor.’ True story. And his answer to me, without missing a beat, ‘How do I know you haven’t become an actor?’ So, I’m glad to be back as a recovering thespian.”
Whether he was acting, governing, or both, one of Murphy’s initiatives has been to reinstate tax breaks for film and television production work in the state. Officials said spending on filming and taping had quadrupled to $500 million in New Jersey last year. Murphy noted a studio opened earlier this year in Kearny, and that the Bayonne Planning Board had just approved another.
Murphy said it was fitting that New Jersey encourage a thriving film and television industry. He noted the state’s history as the birthplace of filmmaking and cited Thomas Edison’s Black Maria, a space that rotated to ensure consistent sunlight, that had been located a few miles away in West Orange.
A rendering of the film & television studio that officials said would be built in Newark's South Ward, which will be leased by Lionsgate.Courtesy of HLW International LLP — VUW Studios
Speakers including Baraka, state Senate Majority Leader — and Newark native — Teresa Ruiz, New Jersey Performing Arts Center CEO John Schreiber, whose institution has a formal role in the studio’s development, and others thanked Murphy for reinstating the tax break. Murphy, in turn, thanked them and others.
Baraka specified that Newark itself was the cradle of filmmaking. It was a reference to the Rev. Hannibal Goodwin’s 1887 invention of celluloid roll film at the Plume House on Broad Street, as a way to project his Sunday school lessons on a wall.
Officials promised the studio would generate more than 600 permanent jobs and $800 million in annual economic activity, with the capability of hosting three major film or television productions at a time.
In addition to the actors, directors, showrunners, producers, makeup artists, prop masters and best boys, there would be jobs for carpenters, painters, electricians and others required for building and maintaining sets.
That sounded pretty good to Manuel Medina, a carpenter applying vinyl siding to a house on Dayton Street, a block from the Boyden site.
“It’s a good opportunity,” especially if union benefits go along with the work, said Medina, 47, who lives just over the border in Elizabeth. Medina never did any acting work before, but he added, “You never know.”
The studio was envisioned more than three years ago by leaders of the performing arts center, or NJPAC, a Newark institution whose mission extends beyond serving as a concert venue. It includes sparking economic development on its own downtown property and throughout the city through the performing arts. Schreiber noted that NJPAC has been hosting television productions of musical performances and discussions for years.
“We’ve been been doing TV for a long time,” said Schreiber, adding that NJPAC, in conjunction with others, will also arrange internships at the studio for Newark students hoping to enter the film and television industry.
It was an NJPAC Board member, real estate investor Marc E. Berson, who spotted the Boyden property as a potential studio site near some of his own properties in the area.
Boyden Court, the city’s first public housing complex, was vacated by the Newark Housing Authority in 2015 due to high crime and maintenance costs. It’s been declared a redevelopment area, and as the site’s owner and official redevelopment agency, the housing authority named NJPAC as the designated developer of its commercial portion. NJPAC, in turn, has an agreement with Great Point Studios to develop the film and TV complex.
Lionsgate, known as the distributor of The Hunger Games film franchise among its many titles, will lease the studio from Great Point, which recently developed a facility across the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York.
Great Point Founder Robert Halmi said that, as at the Yonkers location, Newark residents would fill many of the jobs created by the project. Actors, directors and others traveling from farther afield would benefit from the site’s proximity to Manhattan less than 15 miles away, as well as nearby Newark Liberty International Airport, the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway.
Boraie Development LLC will develop the residential portion of the Boyden site with up to 400 market-rate and affordable housing units.
“Our residential will compliment NJPAC’s commercial,” company principal Wasseem Boraie, said in advance of Tuesday’s event. “Homes and jobs. That’s what the South Ward needs.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com