Paramount has signed a 10-year lease on a film and television production facility currently under construction in New Jersey, a move that will give the entertainment company access to that state’s tax incentive program.
The future 58-acre facility, known as 1888 Studios, will be located in Bayonne, N.J., and is being developed by Togus Urban Renewal.
The facility is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2028 and will have more than 1.1 million square feet of production space across 23 sound stages, post-production work areas, offices and lighting and grip facilities, according to a statement Tuesday. The facility will cost more than $1 billion to build.
Paramount, which was recently acquired by Skydance Media, will occupy more than 285,000 square feet at the facility.
The 1888 Studios production hub is also looking to add additional tenants. Bayonne has been a filming location for other productions, including the Bruce Springsteen biopic “Deliver Me From Nowhere” and iconic HBO TV series “The Sopranos.”
“Scaling our production and expanding our slate of world-class entertainment is central to our long-term strategy,” Andy Gordon, Paramount’s chief operating officer, said in the Tuesday statement. “Thanks to highly competitive tax credit programs like New Jersey’s, the tri-state area is more attractive than ever before for production as we work together to create new jobs and empower more domestic production for America’s creative workforce.”
New Jersey recently bolstered its film and TV tax credit program to lure more productions. Under the state’s program, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority will designate three studio partners and three film-lease partner facilities. Paramount’s application to be a studio partner will be brought before the economic development authority’s board on Thursday. Lionsgate and Netflix have already been approved as studio partners.
The project comes as California faces growing competition for Hollywood projects.
New Jersey is one of several states, including California, that have upped their incentive programs to attract such work, an increasingly competitive prospect as overseas locations like Britain, Australia and New Zealand have sweetened their own tax credits. The state, which allocates $430 million annually to the program, offers up to 45% on qualified expenditures in certain cases.
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