Hal Rosenbluth

If any year proved Kaufman Astoria’s thesis about the importance of the film industry to New York City’s economy, it was 2020.

While the coronavirus pandemic has still kept most office workers homebound, film production returned as soon as it safely could and has been filling up soundstages around the city.

“All of the jobs this industry provides came back, they were here working,” Hal Rosenbluth said. “That was impressive and that proves something out … when you work from home, all those businesses around those office buildings [suffer]. We can, at least, support our local community.”

But, aside from helping the studio industry get back to work, Kaufman also finished up its six-story building at 34-11 36th Street — which includes soundstages and offices — last year and leased 90,000 square feet in it to Apple for its streaming service, Apple+. Kaufman also got Sesame Workshop to sign on to produce “Sesame Street” in its Queens studio for another four years.

“You’re always hoping for that successful show to be there to take a long run with you,” Rosenbluth said.

Kaufman also announced that it partnered with Silverstein Properties and BedRock Real Estate Partners to redevelop a five-block parcel across the street from its Astoria film campus. The $2 billion mixed-use project, called Innovation QNS, would add new apartments, offices, retail, a movie theater and green space to the neighborhood.

“When you do a large-scale development like this, you actually have the ability to do things for the community, as opposed to a one-off, which has limited capability to be able to provide things as a whole,” Rosenbluth said. “That’s really been the goal from the onset.”

The project is expected to start its scoping sessions this summer, and then hopefully start the city’s months-long, land use review process.

For next year, Rosenbluth hopes to start filling up the office space in Kaufman’s newly built 34-11 36th Street, convincing companies that Queens is the future.

Kaufman is also reportedly weighing bids of around $600 million for its 5-acre Astoria site from Hudson Pacific Properties and a joint venture between Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management. (Rosenbluth could not comment on that news.)—N.R.