The Staten Island deal, signed Dec. 31 but revealed only last week, is a plan to build "the world's second largest sound stage" at the Staten Island Home Port, according to a release issued by project developer Stapleton Studios LLC. City Hall has not released any information on the project.

Stapleton Studios' initial plans call for the construction of 10 filming stages and support facilities, including a 300 ft by 220 ft sound stage. If the project takes off, the developers say they would add destination attractions including a waterfront promenade with Manhattan views. Stapleton has secured $125 million in financing for the project.

Movie producer Robert E. DiMilia, actor Danny Aiello and Harbour Entertainment Inc's Marlowe R. Walker are partnering on the development in association with Burlington Capital. "This project will bring 1,500 jobs within three years," says DiMilia. "It will deliver cost-efficient moviemaking to the New York metropolitan area and it will mean a dramatic resurgence of the Staten Island waterfront."

Stapleton, the Home Port community, was once a bustling retail and commercial area and home to Piels Beer and the US Public Health Service Hospital, now privately owned. Staten Island also was home to some of the city's first film studios. More than 100 silent films were shot in South Beach including "Perils of Pauline" in 1914 and "Birth of a Nation" the following year.

A separate agreement, reportedly signed three days earlier on Dec. 28, is said to provide a $40-million subsidy to revive the stalled Brooklyn Navy Yard project shelved by actor Robert DeNiro two years ago. According to published reports, development rights for the project are now in the hands of David Steiner, the father of Giuliani's Consumer Affairs commissioner, Jane Steiner Hoffman.

Steiner's earlier efforts to develop studios at the sprawling Navy Yard complex reportedly stalled over a standoff with Con Ed. According to reports, the energy provider is only required to supply power up to the 300-acre site's property line. The cost of upgrading the electricity to accommodate a major movie studio at the facility is said to be roughly $40 million.

Instant Insights /

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