Community Corner

With Promise of More Jobs For Minorities, Steiner Studios To Expand

Mayor Bloomberg helps announce five new soundstages at Navy Yard production facility.

Steiner Studios will add five new soundstages to its facility at Brooklyn Navy Yard, essentially adding catnip to draw even more TV and film productions—and badly needed jobs—from shooting locations elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad.

"It used to be that we struggled to attract productions in New York City and often they would instead use cities like Toronto or Prague to replicate New York," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a press conference Monday at Stage 11, part of an additional 450,000 feet of shooting space at Steiner Studios. "Steiner's expansion gives us the ability to compete with Hollywood like never before."

The announcement will immediately create 500 to 750 jobs in the newly unveiled Stage 11, according to Steiner Studios president Douglas Steiner.

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However, city development and media executives hoped to create thousands of additional positions by luring an increasing number of TV and film projects to what is already the largest production facility outside of Hollywood.

And with a special joint effort between the city, a nonprofit organization and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the aim is to fill those future positions with an increasing number of black and Latino applicants.

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Monday's announcement included word that the "Made in NY" Production Assistant Training Program would be co-located at BLDG 92— and located not far from Steiner at the Navy Yard.

As for jobs, the sky seemed the limit.

Steiner said he hoped to create 5,000 net positions as he created a Content Creation District to rival other sectors of the city devoted to fashion and technology.

And it looks like Hollywood is increasingly on board with the idea of setting up a city studio to rival the giants on the West Coast.

Gretchen Moll, star of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, which shoots at Steiner Studios, helped explain the five boroughs' draw for members of the entertainment industry.

"The extras just look like real people," Moll said. "Here it's so much easier because you just look around and it feels like you're not pretending, it's real."


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