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New Bronx Silvercup Studio Set to Boost City’s Entertainment Sector

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo (third from left) is flanked by Silvercup heads Alan and Stuart Suna and other dignitaries as they celebrate the opening of Silvercup North in the Bronx.

The renowned New York-based Silvercup Studios, which produces a variety of film and television productions, has just opened a new location in the Bronx, entitled Silvercup North. The new facility – located in the Port Morris area – has two counterparts in Long Island City, bringing Silvercup’s new facilities total to 23 studios.

As noted by Crains New York, Silvercup now operates 500,000 square feet-plus of studio space in New York City. Their stages have served as the settings for such television programs as HBO’s Sex and the City and The Sopranos. At present, Silvercup’s studio in Queens is filming Quantico, Girls and Elementary.

The thorough transformation of the South Bronx warehouse into a privately funded $35 million production complex takes place during a period when the city’s major production studios—Silvercup, Kaufman Astoria, Steiner and Broadway Stages—are working against the odds to meet the rising demand from the film and television production community.

Due to New York State’s $420 million annual tax credit, there has been a tremendous rise in entertainment production in the city that has made it one of the most popular locations for filming in North America. According to a state report, since 2006, an impressive total of 912 film and television projects have hired more than one million new employees. Simultaneously, these entertainment projects have generated more than $20 billion in new spending and economic activity across the state.

As documented in a 2015 report by Boston Consulting Group that was commissioned by the city, the film and television production industry contributes nearly $9 billion to the local economy on an annual basis.

Despite the impending expiration of the tax credit in 2019, brothers Alan and Stuart Suna—CEO and president of Silvercup Studios respectively—did not hesitate to launch Silvercup North.

“We took a big risk (in creating this new facility),” Alan Suna acknowledged to Crains New York. “It’s not inequivalent to the risk we took at the beginning of each of our other two facilities. But based on the success of this program and the number of jobs that we see it has created, we are hoping that legislatures will continue to be smart enough to understand that this a rare program where the revenues that are received by the state (from the existence of the credit) far exceed the amount of tax credits that are given out.” Gov. Cuomo has the option to extend the tax credit.

“Silvercup Studios is a great New York success story, whose growth and strength parallels everything going on in the Bronx right now,” the governor enthused. “This expansion will help create hundreds of good-paying jobs.”

The state-of-the-art Silvercup North complex features four production studios with extremely high ceilings and can accommodate two-story sets. It also boasts on-site production offices, and extensive set, prop and wardrobe storage areas and a fully-equipped on-site lighting and grip department.

Boruch Shubert

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