East End Studios has broken ground on a film and TV-ready production studio in Sunnyside, Queens that will create nearly 1,000 construction jobs. The city’s film and TV production industry employs more than 185,000 New Yorkers.
The start of construction — which follows a similar milestone at another campus at Pier 94 Manhattan — kicks off the return of the city’s film and TV production industry, after the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writer’s Guild for America (WGA) ended their respective strikes this fall.
“NYCEDC celebrates the East End Studios Sunnyside Campus groundbreaking and is thrilled with the progress made on this new state-of-the-art film- and TV-ready production studio that was just announced over the summer,” said NYCEDC President and CEO Kimball. “With the development of the new East End Studios facility here in Queens, and the recent groundbreaking of Sunset Pier 94 Studios — the first purpose-built studio campus in Manhattan — last month, film and TV production continues to be a huge driver of New York City’s economy, providing good-paying jobs for New Yorkers across the five boroughs.”
The East End Studios Sunnyside Campus will be a 340,000-sq. ft., Class A facility with three full-service, ground-floor soundstages totaling 75,000 sq. ft.. The project also houses a 15,000-square-foot rooftop flex-stage that offers sweeping views of the Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan skylines.
Stages are supported by 125,000 sq. ft. of production, office, and mill spaces. Like all of East End Studios’ projects, the Sunnyside facility will be fully integrated with extended reality and virtual reality infrastructure, including the capability to shoot on a virtual stage and high-speed fiber connectivity with scalable production-level internet.
The $275 million project is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2025.
“Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 is excited about East End Studios coming online,” said Tom O’Donnell, president, Theatrical Teamsters Local 817. “Its opening further cements New York City as the go-to location for episodic production.
