Just across the East River from Manhattan, New York’s newest purpose-built film and TV production facility is slated to open this spring.
The venue, Borden Studios, will occupy the top floors of a complex on Borden Avenue in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City.
The privately owned site was built by real estate investment and operating company Innovo Property Group, which is backed by Nan Fung Group. Innovo secured a $435 million refinancing agreement before beginning construction in 2022.
The facility will have four sound stages and 220,000 square feet of production space and is being touted for its location, which is within easy reach of many New York-based industryites. It will soon be joined by East End Studios in Sunnyside, Queens. When East End broke ground last November, Mayor Eric Adams described Western Queens (the section of the borough where East End and Borden sit) as “a worthy rival to Hollywood.”
Production in New York City has been ramping up steadily after Covid and had been on a roll before the pandemic. The dual strikes in 2023 slowed momentum in the short term but there is abundant investor enthusiasm about the longer term. In addition to the new Queens facilities, Lionsgate Studios just opened in Yonkers, just north of the city, and Sunset Pier 94 Studios was announced last year as a major new cluster of sound stages along the Hudson River in Manhattan.
The four Borden stages are NC-25 sound-rated and range from 11,800 to 16,200 square feet, with 40-foot ceilings and fully retractable, STC-53-rated walls. Along with the stages, Borden Studios will have 43,000 square feet of offices, 56,000 square feet of support space, and more than 8,800 square feet of outdoor space, including a rooftop terrace. Beyond the main 220,000 square feet for production, there is warehouse space totaling 110,000 square feet, available for studio tenants as well as ancillary businesses.
Borden Studios will be operated by The MBS Group, a well-established global studio operator and production services company, and serviced by the MBS Equipment Company.
Michael Newport, EVP & Chief Marketing Officer for The MBS Group, said Borden Studios “offers a fulsome leasing opportunity for content creators who want to film in New York City. The facility is innovative and completely self-contained—and it’s only minutes from Manhattan.”
The multistory design of the site makes Borden able to address “the needs of next-generation users in the dense metropolitan market of New York City—all while enhancing convenience and flexibility with direct, drive-up access and plentiful parking right outside the doors,” said Andrew Chung, Founder and CEO of IPG.
