Against a busy backdrop of carpenters sawing and hammering fresh-smelling lumber for a Hollywood film”™s stage set, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano recently announced his office”™s relaunch of a more streamlined and producer-friendly Yonkers film office.
Renamed the Mayor”™s Office of Film & Photography, the City Hall office will be directed by Spano assistant Jason Baker. At its new website, filmyonkers.com, it offers a one-stop shop for permits and city services for producers of film and photography in Yonkers.
The stage crew at work during the mayor”™s press conference is building cinematic pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge and New York City, the setting of “Winter”™s Tale,” a Warner Bros. film based on the 1983 Mark Helprin novel of the same title and scheduled for release next year. It stars Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, William Hurt and Will Smith.
Those stars should be out in Yonkers in November, when three months of shooting begins at Yonkers Stage, a 32,000-square-foot movie and sound stage in a former storage warehouse on Herrmann Place, an industrial street off Tuckahoe Road a short distance west of the Sprain Brook Parkway.
No signs direct curious, stargazing visitors or announce the building”™s service for the film industry, and film studios, producers and directors often prefer it that way, said Roger Paradiso. Paradiso is co-chairman of Greenwich Street Productions, which owns and operates Yonkers Stage.
A decade ago, said Spano, the city”™s film office coordinated a thriving filmmaking industry in Yonkers. On the Hudson riverfront, Hudson River Stage offered a film production venue in a ready-made-for-Hollywood 19th-century factory village vacated in the mid-1990s by BICC Cables Corp. The “Blue Cube,” a 10-story, 30,000-square-foot former industrial laboratory, was an oft-used sound stage there. Today only the Blue Cube still stands on the industrial site, which is included in the city”™s plan for mixed-use redevelopment on the waterfront.
In 2002, the film office reported 123 filming days in Yonkers, Spano said. In 2011, filmmakers were active in the city only 35 days, he said.
Since taking office in January, Spano has attempted to reverse that decline, working with the Governor”™s Office of Motion Picture and Television Development, which administers the state”™s 30 percent tax credit program for qualified film production costs incurred in the state. “We have 60 days so far this year of filming,” the mayor said.
As recommended by the state office, the city has eliminated some “egregious” fees for film companies, said Spano, including a $500 stage fee and a $500 fee to film on private property. The new website lists a standard $300 weekly fee for filming on public property, a $200 fee for reserved street parking, and $300 daily and $500 weekly fees for use of a city-owned parking lot.
The city is newly offering a production partnership program that will waive the standard permit fee if companies purchase goods and services from Yonkers vendors of equal or greater value.
Paradiso noted that Yonkers is within the 30-mile New York City studio zone that is centered at Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Working in Yonkers, film companies can employ union workers from New York City entertainment industry locals at the same rates paid in the city.
“We”™re 20 minutes outside of Manhattan,” said Spano. “We”™re just over the mountain. There”™s no reason for this industry not to come here.”
“We”™re going to encourage it. We want them to come here,” he said.
For companies filming in more expensive Manhattan, “This is an easy place to get to,” said Paradiso.
Paradiso came to Yonkers in 1998 while scouting for inexpensive stage space with the director of “The Thomas Crown Affair.” They found it in the vacant warehouse last occupied by a moving and storage company.
The building and an adjacent property subleased by Paradiso and business partner Mike Tadross are owned by Mark Herrmann, the former Yonkers auto dealer. Stop & Shop Supermarkets Corp. is the leaseholder, said Paradiso. “We have a very favorable lease,” he said.
“We thought it was a one-shot deal” that would end with production of the 1999 remake of the art-heist flick that starred Pierce Brosnan. “We just kept getting more” film companies reserving the space. “I can”™t tell you we had any five-, 10-year plan,” said Paradiso. “This was just serendipitous, in a way”
Paradiso said two film production stages “could be easily supported” in Yonkers. “The problem is finding the right property at the right price.”
Spano said the Blue Cube, under new ownership led by Ron Shemesh, owner of Excelsior Packaging Group Inc. in Yonkers, might again be used by the film industry.
