Vornado, Blackstone JV Breaks Ground on $350M Film Studio

Sunset Pier 94 Studios groundbreaking. Image courtesy of the New York City Office of the Mayor

Touted as a major milestone that will drive New York City’s economy and its cultural and creative identity, construction has begun on the $350 million Sunset Pier 94 Studios development on Manhattan’s West Side. The public-private partnership is a joint venture of Vornado Realty Trust, Hudson Pacific Properties, Blackstone, the City of New York and the New York City Economic Development Corp. that will create Manhattan’s first purpose-built film and TV studio campus.

Slated for delivery in 2025, the 266,000-square-foot project is being built at West 54th Street and 12th Avenue at a 5.4-acre site Vornado has leased from the city since 2008, when it began operating an event space at Pier 94 and the adjacent Pier 92. Vornado had planned to build a convention center, but that project never materialized.

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The new public-private partnership plan to redevelop the site was announced in August. Vornado, the primary stakeholder with an ownership stake of 49.9 percent, will serve as the project developer. Hudson Pacific will provide design and property management services. Hudson Pacific and Blackstone’s Core+ Real Estate fund will hold a 25.6 and 24.5 percent stake in the project, respectively. Royal Bank of Canada is providing $183 million in construction financing.

The Manhattan complex will be the latest expansion of Hudson Pacific’s Sunset Studios brand of production facilities. Blackstone serves as fund manager of the Sunset Studios partnership. In 2021, Hudson Pacific and Blackstone teamed up to develop Sunset Glenoaks Studios in Sun Valley, Calif., the first large-scale, purpose-built studio in the Los Angeles area in more than 20 years.

Manhattan highlights

Sunset Pier 94 Studios will comprise six sound stages totaling 85,000 square feet with 36-foot maximum clear heights, along with 145,000 square feet of production support facilities and offices. Amenities will include a mill, greenroom, hair and makeup rooms and 105 parking spaces. Designed by Gensler to achieve LEED Gold and Fitwel certifications, the building will operate entirely off renewable energy.

The studio property will also provide amenities for New Yorkers and visitors, including 25,000 square feet of open space facing the Hudson River, an 1,850-square-foot community space, new public restrooms and safety improvements to the existing greenway. The project is expected to create more than 1,700 jobs, including more than 1,300 construction jobs, and provide a $6.4 billion economic impact to the city. There will also be new workforce development and training programs to connect residents to opportunities in film, television, commercial and media production.

A rendering of Sunset Pier 94 Studios in Manhattan. Image courtesy of Vornado Realty Trust

Mayor Eric Adams, who was among the elected officials, community leaders and joint venture executives at this week’s groundbreaking, said in a prepared statement Sunset Pier 94 Studios will bring a major private investment to a public asset, activating a long-vacant space to create good-paying jobs, vibrant public space and amenities for the community.

Growing industry in NYC

New York City’s film and TV industry has grown significantly over the past decade, supporting more than 185,000 jobs, generating more than $18 billion in wages and contributing more than $82 billion in economic impact. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent writers’ and actors’ union strikes impacting the industry, the arts and entertainment sector in New York City has grown nearly 16 percent between May 2022 and May 2023. Nearly 46,000 jobs have been recovered since the start of the pandemic.

Victor Coleman, chairman & CEO of Hudson Pacific Properties, said in prepared remarks the local entertainment industry is hungry for a modern, ideally located production facility like Sunset Pier 94 Studios.

Several other film and TV studios are being built in and around New York City. Studio development and management company East End Studios secured $193 million in financing in July to build a 275,000-square-foot studio in Queens. Sunnyside Campus, which will have three sound stages and 125,000 square feet in production and office space, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.