The long-awaited formal opening of the $100 million Lionsgate movie and TV production studio in Yonkers is expected to take place on Jan. 11, the Business Journal has learned. It is believed that the first project set to be produced at the new facility will be a Lionsgate Television film, “Run the World.”
A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected on Jan. 11. The Business Journal had previously been told that work on productions might begin before a formal ribbon-cutting was held. A formal opening in November with some production work beginning in October previously had been anticipated.
The studio facility is located in the iPark Hudson site adjacent to the Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. plant near the Yonkers train station and Hudson River. It has been designed with two sound stages of 20,000 square feet each and one 10,000-square-foot stage along with parking for 450 cars. Developer National Resources recently proposed an expansion of the studio facility and adding additional parking.
In addition, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano in an interview for the Business Journal”™s sister publication WAG magazine”™s December issue, indicated that the opening of the Lionsgate studio will be a seminal event for the city”™s future, likely to be followed by other movie studios opening in the city including a second major studio on a large parcel of land in the southern section of Yonkers that was moving closer to becoming reality.
When Spano came into office, film and TV companies were reluctant to work in Yonkers because of the tax structure and city requirements for licensing and hiring personnel such as firemen and policemen.
“In 2011, we had two days when they filmed in this town. Now we”™re getting on average over 200 days a year,” Spano said. “We got rid of that tax, we changed the way the city did business and frankly it didn”™t come without some pain because we had some of our municipal unions going to the places they were filming and saying, ”˜You need to hire two of our people.’ It was lunacy and I put in place an office just for filming with one person in charge of it and said, ”˜If you need to hire two firefighters then you better be doing pyrotechnics. If not, then we don”™t need firefighters. Do we need cops? We”™ll hire cops if we need them. We”™ll hire public works crews if we need them but we”™re not going to go there and almost to the point where it looked like we”™re going to hold you up for these employees.’”
Spano said that the stage is set for people to see similarities in the relationship between Los Angeles and nearby Burbank where movie and TV studios are located and the relationship between Yonkers and New York City.
