NEW YORK CITY — Canyon Partners Real Estate LLC and J.P. Morgan have provided a $193 million senior construction loan to East End Studios for the ground-up development of Sunnyside Campus, a media and content production studio in Queens. Construction is underway, and completion is slated for the first quarter of 2025.
Sunnyside Campus will total 275,000 square feet and feature three full-service, ground-floor sound stages spanning 75,000 square feet. The stages will feature clear heights of 37 feet and may be subdivided.
Plans additionally call for a 15,000-square-foot rooftop flex stage with views of the Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan skylines along with ample outdoor gathering space. The stages will be supported by 125,000 square feet of production, office and mill spaces, 225 below-grade parking spaces, and eight enclosed loading bays for full-size trucks. Mill space can be utilized for set construction, welding, props, special effects and more. Like all East End Studios projects, the Sunnyside facility will be fully integrated with extended reality and virtual reality infrastructure.
Positioned on a full city block between Queens Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway, the Sunnyside campus offers cast and crew members convenient public transportation options.
The New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA) provided tax incentives for the project. Sunil Aggarwal of Think Forward Financial consulted with East End Studios to facilitate the NYCIDA transaction. Gluck + is the project architect.
The Sunnyside development capitalizes on the entertainment industry’s need for well-designed and well-located production space, according to East End Studios. The company states that New York’s entertainment market is positioned for long-term growth due to recently enhanced tax incentives programs for media companies, the availability of industry talent and an abundance of on-location filming resources.
“The new East End Studios – Sunnyside Campus will serve as an economic driver for local businesses and create jobs for New Yorkers, advancing our city’s $82 billion film and TV industry, which makes up 6.5 percent of our total GDP,” says Pat Swinney Kaufman, commissioner of the mayor’s office of media and entertainment.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, East End Studios is an independent studio management and development company. When complete, East End’s newly built studio portfolio will total more than 2.5 million square feet across various developments in Los Angeles and Queens. The five campuses will house 38 purpose-built stages.
— Kristin Harlow