Let's thank film studios for gentrifying Astoria & LIC

From Crains:

"Studio pioneers, like Silvercup and Kaufman Astoria, clearly provided the impetus to make this area the hub of New York productions," said Matt Dienstag, co-owner of LeNoble. "It's the New York production version of Field of Dreams: They built it and we came."

Today, spurred by a boom in film and TV production, Kaufman Astoria and Silvercup studios have upped their investments in once-forlorn areas of western Queens that have helped attract small businesses, restaurants and arts groups making the neighborhoods more attractive residential destinations. Their influence, combined with the city's rezoning efforts, are causing the communities to be transformed by an influx of young couples and families.

"This neighborhood used to be full of vandalized buildings," said Hal Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria. "Our goal wasn't just to build a movie studio. It was to revitalize a neighborhood using the studio as a base."

In early February the first Queens branch of the popular Australian café Toby's Estate Coffee opened on Jackson Avenue, a few blocks from Silvercup. And Eleni Goros opened a café called Sweet Scene near Kaufman Astoria in August.

"The studio being here is obviously a huge plus," she said. "There has been a much younger crowd moving into the neighborhood and young families as well."

Those families have been attracted to the area by a seismic change in the residential market that also has benefited the studios. Over the past decade rising real estate prices in Manhattan and Brooklyn have funneled renters, buyers and developers to Long Island City, part of which was rezoned in 2001 to allow for massive apartment towers that could be built more cheaply there than elsewhere.

And built they were. Since 2007 around 11,000 units have been constructed, and 24,000 more are on the way. Astoria's relative cheapness and proximity to Midtown also has made it attractive to residents priced out of other neighborhoods.

Because of all the activity, real estate prices are skyrocketing. The average price per square foot of residential space in the part of Astoria around Kaufman has jumped roughly 35% to $1,050 in the past two years, according to Eric Benaim, chief executive of Modern Spaces, a real estate brokerage and marketer specializing in Long Island City and Astoria. In the Court Square area near Silvercup, the average rent has increased to around $1,300 per square foot from about $1,000 two years ago.

Silvercup building more condos

From The Real Deal:

Silvercup Properties, the development arm of film and TV production company Silvercup Studios, is planning 120 condo units in Long Island City with a total sellout price of $108 million.

The Edison, located at 27-21 44th Drive between Sunnyside Yard and Jackson Avenue, will also have 6,780 square feet of retail space and 28 parking spots, according to a summary of the offering plan filed with the state Attorney General and reviewed by The Real Deal.

Silvercup, founded by brothers Alan and Stuart Suna with their father, Harry, acquired the site for $21.1 million from Vorea Holdings LLC and Meshburg Capital last year. Apartments will average under 1,000 square feet, according to previously-filed building plans.

The studio is also looking to revive its long-delayed $1 billion expansion project in Long Island City, which includes the development of eight sound studios, a 1,000 unit residential component, an office tower, a parking garage and retail space.

Silvercup project may resemble deformed horseshoe

From Curbed:

As it turns out, the expansion of Long Island City's Silvercup Studios to include Silvercup West, a mixed-use extension of the famed production studio, hasn't been a dormant project after all; in fact, LEESER Architecture has been busy creating a plan as an alternate to the originally-proposed Richard Rogers design. LEESER's proposal was created in 2013 for a "potential investor," and one-up's Rogers's design by working within the site's existing zoning restrictions. Rogers's design recently resurfaced when Silvercup filed a special permit renewal extension for the design that includes a 2.2 million-square-foot complex with eight sound studios, an office tower, 1,000 apartments, a 1,400-space parking garage, and cultural and retail space.

Silvercup West proposal back for renewal

From the Queens Chronicle:

Silvercup West, the long-delayed mixed-use development next to the Queensboro Bridge, was brought before Community Board 2 on Sept. 17 to renew special permits and authorizations.

In 2006, when the project was going through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, Silvercup West was praised for providing waterfront public access, affordable housing and office space for the film and television industry — in honor of the project’s namesake, Silvercup Studios.

Within two years of CB 2 approval and City Council approval, the development was stalled for various reasons and has since remained in limbo.

Now with the special permits and authorizations about to expire, developers want to renew.

“It is important to know this project has already been approved, so your consideration should be based on the facts upon which the project was approved and whether or not those facts remain true,” Marcie Kesner, the attorney representing the Silvercup West developers, said.

The permits in question are for a Silvercup sign on the side of one of the new buildings; building setbacks, which would allow builders to pull back the height of the buildings from the proximity to the Queensboro Bridge; and 50,000 square feet of waterfront access on the East River. The special authorization would be for the construction of a 1,400-car parking garage.

Overall, board members seemed largely in favor of the plan, though the Wednesday night meeting was a public hearing.

Questions asked by members were clarifying ones to ensure the project would still provide affordable housing and build an adequate seawall.

“At the time, the community board asked for 10 percent of units to be set aside for affordable housing,” Kesner said. “The commitment that was made was for 15 percent of units in the two south towers or about 150 units will be built off-site as affordable housing and then it breaks down for low-income, etc. If the developers do not fill the north tower as an office tower, but instead build that as a residential tower, the equivalent of 20 percent of the units would be affordable.”

I like the "if/then" caveat. Stupid.

Western Queens people producing too much garbage

From the Queens Gazette:

The Department of Sanitation garage at the Queens West 1 facility has not kept pace with the enormous growth of the community it serves.

“We need a larger garage,” DSNY Queens West Borough Chief Douglas Marsiglia said at the June meeting of the Queens borough cabinet. “The community would love for us to move, and we would love to move from there.” Located at 34-28 21st St. on city-owned property in Long Island City near the Ravenswood Playground, Queens West 1 lies within Community Board 1 and has 46 collection trucks, nine mechanical sweepers and 10 salt spreaders assigned to it. There are also 121 DSNY workers at the garage.

Marsiglia told Borough President Helen Marshall, that DSNY is presently seeking a new location that meets both district and community needs. “No site has been identified, so far,” Marsiglia said.

Salt used to melt snow and ice during the winter months is stored year-round at 43-02 Vernon Blvd. in Community Board 2 for use in Queens West 1 at an outdoor facility that is covered by a tarp. Marsiglia said the agreement for that location, part of the Silvercup development site, may be revoked at any time. “We’ve been there for a number of years,” he said. However, remaining depends on “what [Silvercup Studios] wants to do with their land”. A $1 billion complex of soundstages, offices and apartments has been proposed for the land that now houses the Queens West 1 salt pile, the Terra Cotta building and a power generator station.

Shouldn't they have planned for this before the massive upzoning?

Pigeons show malice toward Alice

From the NY Post:

This rare American kestrel -- who bears more than a passing resemblance to ghoulish rocker Alice Cooper -- is alive and well after being rescued by a good Samaritan in Brooklyn...

Morgan Pitts, 36, left his Greenpoint home at 7 a.m. when he spotted Alice -- too young to fly -- being bullied by eight pigeons and mourning doves who were pecking the feathers off its tail.

Pitts, an assistant prop master for NBC's "30 Rock," shooed the bullies away and used a box to cover the kestrel, a type of falcon.

He took the bird to the Silvercup Studios in Queens. His friend Mike Gallart called his wife, Wendy, who works for the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan.

Blocking the bridge view: A tale of 2 boros

Before proceeding, let me remind you that both the Queensboro and Brooklyn Bridges are official NYC landmarks.

BROOKLYN:
Councilman David Yassky (D-DUMBO), who has opposed the project from the start, called McCullough's support "a big development."

"I call it visual vandalism, and we ought not to let it happen," said David McCullough, who wrote "The Great Bridge," a book on the building of the historic span.

"We would not stand back and say it's a fine idea to put an 18-story tower right beside the Washington Monument," McCullough added.

"Would Paris allow a developer to put an 18-story tower beside Notre Dame?"

QUEENS:

Mr. Gioia said the Silvercup West plan is made possible by a mayoral administration with a grand vision for the waterfront and the removal of the political hurdles that stymie much of New York's development.

A professor of urban planning at New York University, Mitchell Moss, said that previous plans for the site lacked creativity.

"That site has been ripe for renewal for 30 years," Mr. Moss said. "But this is the first time that we're finally dealing with ideas and a design that will work on that portion of the Queens waterfront."

Preservationists have also gone apeshit over the Brooklyn plan. They have stayed eerily silent on the much larger Queens project, however. What gives?

Work drying up for film industry

From the Daily News:

Since a successful state tax break for film and TV productions ran out of money on Feb. 2, the heads of two major studios in Queens said scheduling for pilots has come to a grinding halt.

"Once the word started to leak out that it was running out of funds, that was it. Boom - it just stopped," said Kaufman Astoria Studios President Hal Rosenbluth.

Rosenbluth said he hasn't gotten a single call to book a pilot since the $460 million the state allocated for the program through 2013 was tapped out.

Silvercup Studios in Long Island City has no pilots right now, said President Stuart Suna. Last year, it was home to four of the eight pilots filmed in the city for the 2008-2009 season.

Those are troubling signs, since pilots are usually booked in January and February and shot in the spring in time for prime-time premieres in September.

Film studios waiting for renewal of tax breaks

From the Times Ledger:

Western Queens studio heads said they hope to keep the cameras rolling after a tax credit that has brought movies and television productions back to New York City in droves recently ran out of money.

Two of the city’s largest film and television studios are located in western Queens, including Long Island City’s Silvercup Studios and Kaufman Astoria Studios.

Alan Suna, chief executive officer of Silvercup, said two shows — “Gossip Girl” and “Ugly Betty” — are covered through their next season, which will begin shooting at the studio this spring. But the studio has not signed any new TV shows or movies, which could prevent Silvercup from moving forward on its massive $1 billion expansion project that would include eight soundstages, a waterfront pavilion and 1,000 apartment units.

From Crain's:

Fringe, Damages and Life on Mars are among the TV shows are now considering a move to cheaper locations because of New York state’s stalled tax-incentive program for film and TV production.

Warner Bros. Television “is saying they will not stay here without a tax incentive,” said Beth Kushnick, the set decorator on Fringe.

Fringe spends $4 million on each episode, and employs more than 100 people.

The state tax-credit that brought production levels to a record high last year has run out of money, and film executives say legislators in Albany aren’t planning to decide whether to refund the program until the end of April. That may be too late.