A lender is telling one of many metropolis’s most iconic filming studios to pay up.
Deutsche Financial institution has filed for foreclosures on the five hundred,000 sq. foot Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens. The lender is claiming the borrower, a partnership tied to Hackman Capital, didn’t pay again the mortgage by the November maturity date and now owes about $359 million.
The lender can be looking for a judgement towards guarantor Michael Hackman and others.
As town tries to extend its studio area, financial troubles at one of many metropolis’s greatest and most well-known studios may very well be a worrisome signal.
In 2021, the borrower, referred to as Astoria Studios Restricted Partnership II, took out $340 million tied to the property. Hackman bought the positioning by means of an affiliate for about $600 million two years later.
Hackman was personally named as a defendant as he served as a guarantor on the mortgage. The lender is looking for a deficiency judgement to make Hackman and Hackman Capital liable for any distinction between the mortgage quantity and what the property can get at public sale if a foreclosures goes by means of.
The information was first reported by PincusCo. Representatives for Kaufman Astoria administration and the lender didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Hackman Capital additionally owns Silvercup Studios with levels in Queens and the Bronx. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate defaulted on a $1.1 billion mortgage tied to Radford Studio Middle in Los Angeles, with Bloomberg reporting that Goldman Sachs can be taking up the property.
The studio partnered with Silverstein Properties and different builders for what was meant to be the Innovation QNS web site, a $2 billion plan to deliver 2,700 models of housing and 200,000 sq. toes of retail to the realm. The megaproject received rezoning approval from the Metropolis Council. The plan was scrapped final summer time after Silverstein walked away from the undertaking, citing partially uncertainty round multifamily tax abatement applications.
Kaufman Astoria Studios first opened in 1920 by the corporate that was later to turn out to be Paramount Photos, in response to the studio’s web site. The corporate filmed silent and later speaking movies there, together with appearances from the Marx Brothers, however the lot fell into disrepair after World Battle II. It obtained its identify within the Nineteen Eighties when developer George Kaufman renovated and expanded the area.
Current tv productions filmed there embrace Sesame Road, Succession, Orange is the New Black, and And Simply Like That. Regardless of a spate of recent studio openings, Kaufman Astoria claims to have the one studio backlot within the 5 boroughs.
The foreclosures submitting comes as New York has been pushing to develop movie and tv manufacturing within the metropolis. The state has been providing tax incentives for manufacturing and post-production since 2004, providing 30 p.c again on certified bills, however expanded these incentives this previous Might. The annual cap on funding was boosted to $800 million, and several other new credit have been added as a part of the state funds.
These modifications made New York one of the country’s leaders in film production incentives, on par with Georgia, in response to manufacturing streamliner Leisure Companions.
A number of new studios have opened within the metropolis in the previous few years. The newest is the Sundown Pier 94 Studios, which launched in January on West 54th Road, from Vornado Realty Belief, Hudson Pacific Properties, Blackstone Actual Property, and the New York Financial Growth Company.
The EDC announced in October $552 million in closed financing for 2 new studios in Bushwick and Pink Hook.
Learn extra
ABS Partners buys Manhattan studio lease
$2B Queens project dead, but smaller ones planned
Council approves Silverstein, BedRock’s $2B Innovation QNS
