Against the background of construction now underway on the Lionsgate movie and television production studio at 51 Wells Ave. near the Metro-North Railroad station in Yonkers, talks have been taking place to bring possibly two more movie studios to the city, the Business Journal learned during an exclusive interview with Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano.
“We’re looking at maybe one or two additional studios coming to Yonkers in light of what’s happening with Lionsgate,” Spano said. “There’s tremendous interest in Yonkers and hopefully we’ll be able to make that announcement soon.”
Spano disclosed to the Business Journal that developers have been having discussions that he’s aware of with other movie studios about coming to Yonkers. When pressed, he declined to identify the developers or the movie studios involved because of the confidential nature regarding details of what’s going on.
Spano recalled that when he first took office, the governor’s film office in Albany questioned why the city wasn’t having film companies shooting there every day.
“We had to change a couple of our tax structures because they were not friendly to the industry,” Spano said. “We had to change some of the ways they were treated when they got into the city; and we made those changes. We went from in 2011 having three days of shooting to now we’re having well over two or three hundred days of people shooting movies here in Yonkers.”
He said that the mixture of architecture found in the city provides any kind of background a film company could want.
“It’s a great place for the movie companies to come and they’re showing us by coming here with Lionsgate and maybe a couple of others,” Spano said.
Several new studio centers are being proposed or built around the New York Metro area. A developer has proposed a 100,000-square-foot studio facility in Port Washington on Long Island. Netflix is building a facility in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. A new studio has opened in the Bronx, Robert De Niro has been working on building a studio in Astoria and three studio projects are planned for Jersey City.
The new Lionsgate studio in Yonkers, originally given a $100 million price tag, is being built in the iPark complex on what formerly was a parking lot adjacent to the Kawasaki rail car plant, just east of the Metro-North tracks and a short walk from the Yonkers train station.
Earth-moving equipment as well as crews performing manual work have been preparing the site and putting infrastructure into place, getting ready for foundation pouring.
A source at one of the development entities told the Business Journal that there was a possibility walls of the studio building could start rising on the site by early spring and at least one of the three soundstages could be ready for use before next fall.
The Lionsgate project has received wide acceptance within the city, including financial incentives from the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
The entity for the project is Hudson View Associates LLC, which according to papers filed with the IDA has two equal owners: National Resources, headquartered in Greenwich, which owns 50% and London-based Great Point Capital, which also owns 50%. Lionsgate, which is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, would lease the facility from them.
The approximately 109,000-square-foot development would include three production soundstages plus support spaces. Two of the soundstages would be 20,000 square feet and the third would be 10,000 square feet. Those soundstages would be comparable in size with many of the stages found on Hollywood studio lots.
Joseph Cotter, president and CEO of National Resources, had told the IDA, “According to the industry experts, a lot of the talent wants to be in the New York metro area and Yonkers fits very well into this model. We think this project will have a transformational effect on the downtown of Yonkers.”
He said that the economic multiplier effect of the studio industry is probably one of the highest. He said that Lionsgate is the most exciting tenant they’ve ever had at iPark.
Last April, the developers secured a $40 million loan from CIT Bank to complete the financing for the studio project.
On Feb. 4, Lionsgate reported third-quarter revenues for fiscal 2021 of $836.4 million and a net loss attributable to Lionsgate shareholders of $13.9 million. It reported having adjusted free cash flow of $110.7 million in the quarter.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Lionsgate stated, “We expect that motion picture segment revenues will decrease in fiscal 2021 as compared to fiscal 2020 due to delays in domestic and international theatrical distribution and production as a result of the closure of theaters and paused productions throughout the U.S., Canada, and worldwide due to circumstances associated with the Covid-19 global pandemic.”
In a statement, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said that overall the company experienced a strong quarter reflecting subscriber growth at its entertainment subscription service STARZ and increased revenues from its library of movies and TV shows.
