Report To The Community 2022

lights, camera,
On a sunny afternoon in May,
NJPAC’s President and CEO,
John Schreiber, was joined
by New Jersey Governor Phil
Murphy and Newark Mayor
Ras J. Baraka for a press
conference — in the middle
of a vast field of rubble.
It looked like the set of an
apocalyptic creature-feature —
but in fact, it was the site of an
exciting new chapter in New
Jersey’s long history with the
motion picture business, and the
launch of a new role for NJPAC.
With construction cranes arching
over them, and prominent
Newarkers gathered around,
the three announced to the
world a deal to create Lionsgate
Newark — a new, purposebuilt,
350,000-square-foot, $200
million film and TV studio, the
first of its kind in the state, to
be built on the site of the city’s
long-abandoned and now
demolished Seth Boyden Housing
Project in the South Ward.
The studio, which will include the
largest soundstages on the East
Coast when it opens in 2025 —
and enough of them for three
projects to be filmed at once —
was named for its first long-term
action!
NJPAC assembles “a coalition of
the willing” to bring a world-class
film studio to the South Ward,
expanding the economic impact of
the arts in Newark
tenant, global content creator
Lionsgate. Great Point Studios, a
studio investment/management
business specializing in film and
television infrastructure, will own
and operate the studio; NJPAC
will manage public affairs and
community relations for the studio
and create educational programs
and internships for Newark high
school and college students there.
The project will bring hundreds
of long-term jobs to the city,
and is expected to bring
more than $800 million
into the state annually.
“This is a great, great day …
Newark and New Jersey are
each ready for their closeups,”
Governor Murphy
said at the conference.
The Arts Center was the prime
mover in bringing together city
and state officials, investors and
more to make the new studio a
reality — signaling a new way
that NJPAC can harness the
power of the performing arts
to serve as an economic driver
for the city and the state.
Long before Governor Murphy
passed a tax credit program
that included incentives for new
film production facilities in New
Jersey, NJPAC had explored the
possibility of building a TV and
film studio in Newark, as a way
to expand its work in broadcast
production. The Arts Center
has hosted numerous film and
television productions on its
campus over the past decade,
from the TV show America’s Got
Talent to awards ceremonies
like Black Girls Rock! Some 15
Netflix productions have been
filmed at NJPAC. A studio was the
logical next step in expanding
what was becoming part of the
Arts Center’s core business.
NJPAC’s Executive Producer
David Rodriguez, then-COO
Warren Tranquada and the Arts
Center’s SVP of Real Estate and
Capital Projects Tim Lizura, had
already spent years scouting for
a location large enough for a
first class studio, and exploring
ways to fund a state-of-the-art
facility, when the tax credit
program made the project
even more economically viable.
Then developer Marc Berson,
an NJPAC Board member,
identified the Seth Boyden site
as a possibility, and the Newark
Housing Authority and the
Baraka administration granted
NJPAC permission to seek
partners to develop that land.
Thanks to the efforts of a
number of NJPAC’s advocates
and supporters — that
Schreiber dubbed a “coalition
of the willing” at the press
conference — including First
Lady Tammy Murphy and Aisha
Glover (one-time president of
the Newark Alliance, now an
executive at Audible), NJPAC was
able to meet and partner with
Robert Halmi, founder of Great
Point Studios, to pull the plan to
build a Newark studio together.
“This is going to be a real shot
in the arm for this community, a
landmark studio with the largest
studios in the East — we could
Hollywood on the Passaic: Last May, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy,
NJPAC President-CEO John Schreiber and Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka
announced the creation of Lionsgate Newark — a 350,000-square-foot,
$200 million film and television studio, the first of its kind in the state.
have up to a thousand people
working here every day,” Halmi
said at the press conference. He
also noted that the studio will be
built with the environment top of
mind, filled with energy-saving
low-power lights, covered in
solar panels and even boasting
green roofs where vegetables
to feed the cast and crew of
productions will be grown. The
facility will also offer a full set
of production services on site,
including props, set building,
restaurants and location catering.
“We at NJPAC have cultivated
a Newark-based network for
artists to create, rehearse, tour
and broadcast here. Now, this
studio will play a critical role in
the ever-growing arts ecosystem
in this city,” says Schreiber.
And NJPAC will also ensure that
this branch of the business of
the arts is accessible to the city’s
young people. The Arts Center
will serve as a community liaison
for the studio, and extend its
education programs to include
ones that bring students to
the studio to learn about film
and television production,
or to intern at the studio.
The Arts Center is even in
discussion with the Newark
Public Schools in hopes of
developing a new high school,
near the studio, that will offer
a curriculum focused on the
digital and performing arts. •
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