Lionsgate And Great Point Execs Size Up Progress Of Their New Studio Facility In Yonkers, A New York City Suburb Billing Itself As ‘Hollywood On The Hudson’
28.04.2023 - 01:09
/ deadline.com
It isn’t just the proximity to New York’s top-shelf production community. It’s also the scale.
That was one of the topline points about Lionsgate Studios in Yonkers, NY made by Lionsgate Television Chairman Kevin Beggs and Great Point Studios CEO Robert Halmi during a panel discussion held there Thursday.
“The overall trend is toward more” production, Beggs said, despite Covid and a pullback in streaming at a number of companies. (The looming WGA strike deadline got only a passing mention during the 30-minute conversation.)
Since Game of Thrones raised the bar for cinematic, finely crafted episodic fare a decade ago, production timelines have lengthened and the need for square footage has increased. In New York, despite the addition of newer players over the years like Steiner Studios on top of legacy ones like Silvercup and Kaufman-Astoria, there is still a premium on basic amenities like street parking and, in some cases, the size of stages. “There is a shortage of big, purpose-built stages, particularly in the Northeast,” Halmi said.
Two of the stages in Yonkers are 20,000 square feet. Halmi said they were the fifth and sixth stages of that size built in the Northeast U.S., designed to capitalize on “big dreams and big shows” hatched in the wake of GoT.
The sprawling studio complex along the Hudson River opened in 2022, part of a major push into soundstage facilities by Great Point. The specialty investment fund, launched by producer and Hallmark Channel founder Robert Halmi and former media investment banker Fehmi Zeko, has built other sites in Newark, Buffalo and Atlanta. Lionsgate became anchor tenant in Yonkers when the facility opened, occupying seven of its 11 soundstages.
While scale is important, the