Though not the postcard image he envisioned, he stumbled upon the industrial waterfront neighborhood of Long Island City, where he found an affordable pad, close to Manhattan, with a yard for his dog, Benny.

“The neighborhood was very raw when I came here,” recalled Mr. Rosa, now an executive vice president at Douglas Elliman. “It all happened by accident. I just needed space for my basset hound.”

Rendering of LIC Waterfront (Credit: TF Cornerstone)

Mr. Rosa moved to the city looking for a change, but Long Island City would change more than he could have imagined. He now works out of Douglas Elliman’s new Elliman LIC office on Vernon Boulevard, as the firm, like many others, tries to capitalize on the neighborhood’s explosive growth.

“I’ve been whispering in Douglas Elliman’s ear about Long Island City for a long time,” he said. “The growth has been amazing.”

The neighborhood’s dramatic makeover from an industrial wasteland to a residential destination and viable alternative to Manhattan was paved by a 2001 residential rezoning that led a few pioneers, including real estate developer Rockrose, to prop up multiple residential towers along Long Island City’s waterfront, which until then had been a largely untapped market.

But the “cat is out of the bag,” developers said, and now residential development has pushed in from the waterfront, toward the Court Square, Queens Plaza and surrounding areas, where several new residential towers are in the works.

Retail and commercial development makes a valiant effort to keep pace, with a number of cultural institutions creating a home base for artists and an office population held together by neighborhood staples like Citigroup and JetBlue keeping businesses afloat, as young people and families priced out of Manhattan give the neighborhood a closer look.

“The transformation that folks were speculating about 20 years ago has tangibly taken hold, making Long Island City a dynamic and exciting neighborhood which is as close to being an adjunct of Manhattan as possible,” said Massey Knakal Chairman Bob Knakal, who has sold dozens of properties and residential development sites in the area.

The scope of the development that the Bloomberg administration is now pushing in the area is nearly unprecedented, breaking ground last week on the first phase of Hunter’s Point South, a mixed-use waterfront development that will include 5,000 residential units, 11 acres of parkland and a 1,100-desk school. The project is set to become the largest residential development initiative by the city since Co-op City was built in the Bronx four decades ago.

Related Companies, partnered with Phipps Houses, Monadnock Construction and SHoP Architects, is building the first two towers at the seven-tower complex, which will be 37 and 32 stories high, making up a combined 925 units geared toward “middle-income” residents.

“The neighborhood is only getting better and better and we wanted to get in on that,” said Frank Monterisi, a vice president at Related Companies. “Long Island City has become very popular with young families, so there’s a real need for this.”

The development of Long Island City, however, was spearheaded over a decade ago by Rockrose, a development company that had the foresight to invest in residential development along Long Island City’s waterfront.

Rockrose purchased a 40-acre site along the waterfront from Pepsi (hence the iconic sign, which remained as part of the deal) in 2003, beginning its massive erection of the soaring glass and concrete towers that are now synonymous with Long Island City’s waterfront.

“They are the reason why Long Island City is where it’s at,” Mr. Rosa said. “They took a piece of real estate that was very unattractive and turned it into what it is now. It’s night and day.”

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In 2009, Rockrose, owned by members of the Elghanayan family, split into two entities (Rockrose and TF Cornerstone), with TF Cornerstone retaining most of the waterfront properties and Rockrose focusing in the Court Square area. Both continue to build aggressively in their respective camps, with a number of other developers and businesses following suit.

TF Cornerstone owns five residential buildings along Center Boulevard (including one condo building, The View), the street that winds along the waterfront. When two more buildings in the pipeline hit the market, it will bring the number of units the firm owns along its “East Coast” waterfront community to 3,500, said the firm’s chairman, Tom Elghanayan.

“The idea is that this is not West Queens—it’s the East Coast of Manhattan,” Mr. Elghanayan said. “We appeal to the same market as the high-end clientele of Manhattan.”

Condo sales at The View have topped $1,000 per square foot, and rental rates at TF Cornerstone’s other buildings have averaged around $50 per square foot, which, despite being well above the average for the neighborhood, are still 25 percent below their Manhattan counterparts, Mr. Elghanayan said.

“Long Island City is a real sleeper in terms of the quality of life,” he said. “This is exactly a four-minute ride on the 7 train to Grand Central. If you’re a young family, this is wonderful. You go to work easy, there’s a big park and schools.”

While the market was slow at first to appreciate the value of Long Island City, it’s finally catching on, as land prices and rents continue to rise across the neighborhood.

“The cat is out of the bag,” said Mr. Elghanayan’s nephew, Justin Elghanayan, who, after the 2009 company split, began running Rockrose with his father, Henry.

Rockrose's Linc LIC in Court Square (Credit: Al Barbarino)

The father/son duo is spearheading development in Court Square, with more than 2,500 residential units planned over the next several years, as development pushes farther inland toward the Queens Plaza area, where Mr. Rosa at Douglas Elliman said he is marketing a 410-unit rental building being built at 23-10 Queens Plaza South.

Rockrose’s Linc LIC, a 790-unit residential building, will boast panoramic Manhattan views, a long list of upscale amenities and a 15,000-square-foot supermarket, with rents ranging from $1,900 for a studio to $3,400 for a two-bedroom.

Rockrose also is building a 950-unit residential building at 43-25 Hunter Street; Eagle Loft, a warehouse-to-residential conversion; and retrofitting a number of retail spaces located within a stone’s throw of one another in Court Square, an area where the 50-story Citigroup tower at One Court Square once stuck out like a sore thumb, amid low-lying warehouses and car repair shops. But, beneath the surface, a melting pot of artists and creative types has worked together in the neighborhood for many years.

“The thing that caught our attention about this neighborhood was the attractive transportation and its rich cultural history,” said Justin Elghanayan, noting that the 7 train subway ride into Manhattan clocks in at a brisk three-and-a-half minutes and pointing to the Sage General Store café and restaurant in Court Square as typical of the neighborhood’s artisanal vibe. “That’s why places like this survive—because of the office population and because of the artists living and working here.”

Like the residential and commercial development gripping the neighborhood, a plethora of cultural programs and institutions continue to grow with it, anchored by Moma PS1, The Noguchi Museum, SculptureCenter and the Socrates Sculpture Park, among others.

“We think this development is great—it adds to the diversity of the neighborhood and adds to its continued bright future,” said Gary Kesner, executive vice president with Long Island City’s Silvercup Studios. “The effect on the neighborhood has been tremendous.”

The film and television production studio itself even forayed into the neighborhood’s residential space with its development of The Industry, a 75-unit condo located just a couple blocks outside Court Square.

“People really understand that this neighborhood is perfect both for businesses and residences,” Mr. Kesner said.

The office population is held down by Citigroup (and its One Court Square tower), Jet Blue, the United Nations Federal Credit Union (next door to the Linc LIC building), as well as Publicis, the advertising and media firm that recently relocated to Long Island City from Manhattan. CUNY Law School also purchased six floors at Citigroup’s 2 Court Square in 2010.

(l. to r.) 2 Court Square, United Nations Federal Credit Union and Linc LIC (Credit: Al Barbarino)

Tishman Speyer also owns a site in Court Square slated for a 3.5-million-square-foot project, the first phase of which was the building at 2 Gotham Center, which was sold to Canadian REIT H&R in 2011 for $415.5 million and later leased to the city’s health department.

While plenty of room exists for additional retail development, the appearance of upscale bistros and even national brands is a stark contrast to the vacant storefronts of the past. Restaurants and bars like Dutch Kills, Burger Garage and Manducatis recently joined staples like the Sage General Store and Brooks 1890 along Jackson Avenue.

Corner Bistro and Dominie’s Hoek popped up on Vernon Boulevard; and Shi and Skinny’s Cantina represent the new wave of restaurants to hit the waterfront’s now-glitzy Center Boulevard, where gourmet stores and restaurants are joined by cycling gym Crank Studio, Emily Salon & Spa, and even a Pooches Sport & Spa.

“You can tell there’s affluence in the neighborhood,” said Noel Caban, a retail leasing broker with Winick Realty, noting the influx of high-end bistros and the traffic congestion along the strip that has accompanied the rise in retail rents, from roughly $35 per square foot years ago to $50 per square foot today.

Mr. Caban said he frequently visits the neighborhood and explores its new restaurants with his wife—when they can find a spot, that is.

“I used to be able to park here,” he said.

Whether their scenes were filmed in the city or recreated on a Burbank soundstage, filmmakers have always relied on New York for the dramatic backdrops that its skyline, landmarks, restaurants, avenues and enviable apartment interiors provide.

But 80-odd years after the entertainment industry decamped for Los Angeles—its persistent warmth and sunshine conducive to long shoots, its sprawl hospitable to mammoth studio lots—an increasing number of Hollywood pros are leaving their temperate backyards and making New York their backlot once again with a handful of transactions for actual brick-and-mortar office spaces across Manhattan.

“I moved to New York eight years ago because of the level of work that was happening here,” said Eric Robertson, the visual effects supervisor at the digital studio Mr. X, which expanded from Toronto to Manhattan last year. “That and the fact that a lot of filmmakers were coming home from L.A. People just want to live here because it’s such a hotbed of creativity. And everyone loves New York.”

Of course, the film and television industry never left the city. John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Spike Lee and Darren Aronofsky are just a few homegrown cinematic bards who preferred to stay put. New York University’s Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television famously churns out indie darlings. And quintessential New York TV series like Law & Order and Sex and the City were produced locally to gritty and glossy effect—even if Seinfeld was shot in Studio City.

But over the past decade, cultural, economic and political forces have coalesced to bolster New York’s reputation as Hollywood East.

The Company 3 Screening Room (Photo: Will O'Hare)

“We’re seeing a reverse migration,” said Yana Collins Lehman, an executive board member of the Post New York Alliance, which oversees and lobbies on behalf of a number of postproduction facilities and labor unions. “What flummoxed us in the past was that we’d educate the kids here, but then there wouldn’t be jobs. Now, talent that left New York is coming back.”

New York’s unyielding status as a creative hub and educational powerhouse reels in everyone from directors to screenwriters to grips. But in recent years, the city’s growing stature as an entertainment hub has stemmed in part from considerably less-cinematic Albany.

The New York State Film Production tax credit program was enacted in 2004 and now offers a 30 percent credit for eligible expenses, allocating a total of $420 million per year to the film and TV industries. A 10 percent credit specific to postproduction—the first of its kind in the country—followed in August of 2010.

Last July, Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised the postproduction incentive to 30 percent of qualifying costs, calling it an invitation for productions to “come to the Empire State, the future television and film capital of the world.” (The postproduction credit applies to projects that were filmed outside of New York.)

“We went up to Albany in 2010 and were really idealistic and excited about this credit, and we asked for 10 percent and we got it,” Ms. Lehman said. “It was the only legislative add that year. The budget was really late. But we were psyched. Then we very quickly realized that 10 percent was not going to do the trick.”

In the two years between its original passage and its tripling in size, 18 projects applied for the postproduction credit. In the past six months, 34 have applied. And while only $7 million of the production program’s $420 million is carved out for post-shoot work, the process it supports—editing, sound-mixing and -designing, special effects wizardry—is lengthier than production (36 to 52 weeks versus eight to 10 weeks, according to postproduction workers).

Unlike the $4 million indie film crew that shoots on the streets for a month, a postproduction team’s time frame and heavy duty technological machinery require roots. Mr. Robertson, the president of the recently hatched Mr. X Gotham, searched for permanent offices last year.

“We really wanted to be in the production central area,” he said. “We wanted to walk to the other post houses—Technicolor, Deluxe, PostWorks and Post Factory,” which congregate along Avenue of the Americas, Greenwich Street and the intersection of Leroy and Hudson Streets.

Mr. X landed in 4,000 square feet at 214 Sullivan Street in the Village, a boom mic’s throw away from N.Y.U. “Interestingly, from the very first day, the brokers said they had options in our price range and the size we wanted,” Mr. Robertson said. “It was funny looking at the commercial market being so different than residential, where you feel desperate from Day 1. It was really a very pleasant experience. It felt like everything was a gift being given to us.”

Farther north, in Chelsea, the comprehensive post house Company 3—a unit of Deluxe Creative Services—operates on the top three floors of 218 West 18^th Street. “The industry as a whole has migrated below 23^rd Street,” said Marcelo Gandola, the senior vice president of Deluxe’s East Coast division and president of the Post New York Alliance.

SAE Institute (formerly the School of Audio Engineering) signed a 27,000-square-foot lease earlier this month in Company 3’s building, citing proximity to postproduction companies as a reason for its move from Herald Square. Google owns nearby 111 Eighth Avenue, and the technology surge across Midtown South has been an additional boon to visual effects teams and other fields of postproduction.

“The work we do is very complicated and scientific,” Mr. Robertson said. “We hire skilled artists but also need high-level programmers and people familiar with multiprocessor computer platforms and custom-written software. We’ve been able to do a lot more local hiring than I’d imagined. I thought, upon starting out, that we would have to hire as much as 50 to 60 percent from afar to draw those people who’d left the East Coast years ago and gone to L.A.”

While postproduction facilities cluster downtown on the West Side, much of their creative personnel commute in from across the East River. “If I were going to open a new space, I would probably venture into Brooklyn,” Mr. Gandola said. “I would take advantage of the costs there and the work force. The bulk of your work force is coming out of that borough.”

Production is already centered in Queens—at Silvercup and Kaufman Astoria Studios—and Brooklyn, where Steiner Studios is about halfway to its goal of 32 soundstages built across 50 acres, the largest American production compound outside of Hollywood.

The industry’s growing local footprint no doubt convinced the Pratt Institute to quadruple its film and video enrollment and expand into a 17,000-square-foot Clinton Hill campus, a move it announced last month. The film and TV equipment, studio and office space provider Eastern Effects last month signed a lease for 72,000 square feet in Gowanus, expanding upon the 68,000-square-foot studio space it already had in the neighborhood.

New York has seemingly appeared in every other movie released since the dawn of celluloid, but the public subsidies and growing real estate presence have led to a huge surge in productions actually made here. The New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment reports that it issued permits for 267 feature films last year, about a 70 percent increase from 2004, when the tax credits kicked in. And 25 prime-time series from the current TV season have filmed in the five boroughs. The Mayor’s Office—which declined to comment further—claims that the entertainment industry employs 130,000 New Yorkers.

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much of that rise is attributable to the state’s incentives. What few people deny is that New York would be a nexus of film and television activity even without them.

“New York has great incentives, but it also has the talent and the infrastructure,” Mr. Gandola said. “There’s the backdrop of New York, the energy—all these amazing things that other places can’t offer.”

Movie industry incentives have been as big a magnet for controversy as they have for production and postproduction crews. Some economists question how much of the money generated by filmmakers actually benefits the states in which they shoot (more than 40 states have passed some form of tax credits). Politicians and private citizens wonder if public money should go to the entertainment industry as schools fail and unemployment persists.

The criticism extends to Hollywood. Gavin Polone, the executive producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Gilmore Girls, among other movies and TV series, has been a particularly outspoken dissenter.

“It’s corporate welfare,” Mr. Polone said by phone from L.A. “Credits end up going to large multinational companies. If I were a citizen of New York, I’d like to see that $420 million being put into schools. In the long run, that will put more back into the economy than subsidizing guys who drive vans and boosting large global corporations like Viacom and Sony.”

Ms. Lehman is familiar with arguments like Mr. Polone’s. “The New York film industry is not taking money from orphans and schools and firefighters,” she said, citing a protracted review process in which only a fraction of a movie’s budget—the portion spent on New York labor, purchases and rentals—is eligible for the state’s (rare) nontransferable credit.

The production and postproduction incentives expire in 2014, although Gov. Cuomo’s budget includes an extension through 2019. Mr. Robertson says that the programs give the industry “room to breathe” and necessary opportunity for the type of growth that could handle all the work—pre through post—on, say, the next Spiderman movie.

But he notes that the local industry was in good health when he arrived, just before the credits went into effect. “It’s almost self-sustaining now,” Mr. Robertson said. But “we were already a city where you could come and do your entire movie from start to finish and have a choice of crews. Even then it was busy.”

Ms. Lehman is hopeful that Albany will extend the program. The growth in production would certainly slow—if not reverse course—should it die.

But even Mr. Polone, who “sympathizes” with New York filmmakers competing against incentive-mad filming capitals like Toronto, believes that the city would prosper if all of the credits were eliminated and entertainment operated on a true free market.

“The two big winners would be California and New York, because they have the best locations and infrastructures,” Mr. Polone said. “New York can’t be doubled—it’s New York”

Prop n Spoon, provider of sets and rental props to such shows as 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey (pictured), has closed on over 45,000 square feet in Long Island City. (picture: jtbrennan on Flickr)

Film and television prop rental company, Prop n Spoon, signed a 45,165-square-foot lease at 32-00 Skillman Avenue in Queens, a.k.a, the Swingline Building—the former headquarters of the Swingline Stapler Company.  The ten-year contract – signed in early December – will give the firm a large area to house its prop and furniture products, as well as a showroom for its set fabrication capabilities.

Prop n Spoon, represented by Studley managing director, Jarod Stern, had searched for about three years for a new expansion location, looking in Manhattan as well. The company chose Long Island City because it was economically advantageous and was close to entertainment industry clients, including Silvercup Studios – where smash hits like NBC’s 30 Rock and the CW’s Gossip Girl are filmed – and Kaufman Astoria Studios, said Dyann Klein, co-founder of the Prop n Spoon. The company’s sets and props are also used by Saturday Night Live, Person of Interest, Blue Bloods and the new Judd Apatow film, This is 40. The company also has a 60,000 square foot shop in Rahway, New Jersey, focused on set fabrication.

The Skillman Avenue location, owned by Stellar Management, offered a large, open space, as well as loading docks and freight elevators—perfect for the company’s needs. Proximity to the 7 Train is also a plus, Ms. Klein said. “That was very important for us,” she said. The building is also near Queens Boulevard and the 59^th Street Bridge. About 25 employees will work at the new prop rental facility and showroom.

According to Mr. Stern, Long Island City resonates strongly for many creative companies looking for larger flexible floor plates and increased visibility within the borough’s emerging art scene. In the case of Prop n Spoon, he noted that the Swingline Building “met all of the operational needs of the tenant, including proximity to transportation.” Stellar made minor renovations, including painting, electrical work and the construction of several offices.

The need for space became more pressing following the merger that created the company in its current form. Ms. Klein’s company, Props for Today, joined forces with The Spoon Group, headed by Harlan Silverstein, in the spring of 2011. The company will likely need even more space in the long term, Ms. Klein said, though it has yet to be decided when and in which neighborhood Prop n Spoon will seek further expansion.

Sholom and Zuckerbrot Realty executive vice president, Lawrence T. Smith, represented the landlord but neither he nor Stellar Management responded to calls for comment.