270 Nevins, across from a vacant building. (Photo by Sai Mokhtari/Gothamist)
Last year, the EPA and the city began the process of ousting Gowanus studio Eastern Effects, where The Americans and other productions are filmed, as part of the Gowanus Canal Superfund cleanup. Despite an outcry from the NYC film and television production community, it seems that the film studio will be moving for good, the only question is when.
"It appears that the [NYC] Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] has stayed on target with their plans to demolish our studios in favor of a parking lot, termed construction staging area, to support their efforts in the installation of the Combined Sewer Overflow tanks along the Gowanus Canal," Scott Levy, the founder and president of Eastern Effects, told Gothamist recently.
During a walkthrough of the studio over the summer, Levy told us his company has spent millions creating a state-of-the-art facility in the old copper warehouse. According to Levy, the studio, which includes three buildings clustered near 270 Nevins Street, was only five years into a 20 year lease when this plan came up. But Levy says there is an eminent domain clause in their lease with landlord C&F Second Ave LLC, and the city is within their rights to take the property before the lease is up.
At the start of 2016, Levy told us that no one from the city or the EPA toured the facility in person before coming to the decision to take over the space. "There are three buildings on this block that are completely vacant and available," he said. "Why did they choose this building? There's no common sense logic that can say why. The DEP did not do their due diligence, and that's the bottom line: no one came. The other part that gets us really upset is that no one from the city told us that we were going to be displaced."
Levy in the studio. (Photo by Sai Mokhtari/Gothamist)
In a letter to the city regarding the Gowanus Canal Superfund Site from December 2015, the EPA wrote, "Presently, EPA understands that there are commercially available, workable and considerably less expensive lease or sale options than the movie studio." Apparently it wasn't the EPA who initially suggested the studio location—it was the city. From the EPA's letter: "At our last meeting, the City offered to provide a technical document supporting its position that Parcel 1, the Eastern Effects movie studio, is the appropriate staging area. EPA will review that upon receipt."
But the city is at least making an effort to move the company to a new location, though it's not clear whether they will help finance the upgrades needed to get a new space up to the levels of this one. "The City has proposed to relocate Eastern Effects Studio Campus, seeing that the entire Campus would be affected by the demolition of its largest Studio building," Levy said. "This relocation process has included site visits to a new potential area, architect meetings with planning and design conversations." The process went through the city's Economic Development Corporation and is now in the hands of City Hall to finalize.
Levy added that he's gotten assurances from Julie Menin, Commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, that de Blasio would support the relocation. "At this point, our future still rests in the hands of the city as this solution sits with their budget departments," he added. "We continue to be cautiously optimistic."
A DEP spokesperson told us, "The City is engaged in talks with Eastern Effects in an effort to relocate the studio. The lot where the studio is currently located wouldn’t be needed before 2020."
Based on the timeline of the plans offered last summer, it seems as though the move won't affect the filming of the final two seasons of The Americans, which has called Eastern Effects their home ever since shooting the pilot there in the summer of 2012. The show is currently in the midst of filming season five for a spring 2017 release.
