Apple TV+ Soundstage to Open at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens
The move highlights the growing number of streaming companies opening up production spaces in the outer boroughs
By Nicholas Rizzi January 28, 2021 10:43 am
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Apple will open a soundstage for its streaming service, Apple TV+, at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens.
The tech giant signed a lease for 90,000 square feet in the recently built, six-story building at 34-11 36th Street, dubbed ONStage, The Real Deal reported. Asking rents in the building are $55 per square foot.
Apple took 35,000 square feet for a soundstage on the ground floor, and will also have 40,000 square feet of production space on the ground and fourth floors, along with a 15,000-square-foot office on the fifth floor, TRD reported.
The deal quietly closed last year and is the fourth lease that Apple — which just had its best quarter in history with more than $100 billion in sales — signed around the city in 2020.
In February 2020, it took 220,000 square feet at 11 Penn Plaza, then signed on for another 116,000 square feet in the building in November. It also inked a 2,766-square-foot deal in Downtown Brooklyn to open a private employee lounge near one of its retail shops.
And Apple joins a growing number of streaming companies opening up production spaces in the outer boroughs. In 2019, Netflix (NFLX) inked a deal for a warehouse in Bushwick to build six soundstages, and Amazon (AMZN) delivered some hope to the Brooklyn market last year when it signed a lease in September for 40,000 square feet of production space at 25 Kent for its music streaming service.
The 150,000-square-foot ONStage opened last year and is the latest building in the Kaufman Organization’s campus in western Queens. The property includes 40-foot-tall soundstages on the lower floors and offices on the upper levels.
JRT Realty Group represented Kaufman in the Apple TV+ deal and it’s unclear who brokered the deal for Apple. A spokeswoman for Kaufman declined to comment and a spokesman for JRT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
