Kaufman Astoria Studios Hits 100% Occupancy Amid Foreclosure

Behind the metal gates of Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, last Friday morning looked like a film campus at full tilt. Crew members moved between soundstages through crowded hallways, a scene that Bisnow reported was missing a few years ago, when a monthslong work stoppage shut down studios across the country.

According to Bisnow, all 11 soundstages on the 500,000-square-foot campus were booked last week with productions from Apple, Sony, Netflix and A24. Thomas Laub, vice president of studio strategy at Shadowbox Studios, told the outlet it was the first week since the end of 2022 or the start of 2023 that the stage space was entirely full. “You walked into a bit of a zoo,” he said.

The surge comes as New York’s production sector gains ground. Bisnow reported that production spending has nearly caught up with California after rising 87% in the third quarter.

But the campus’s ownership remains unsettled. Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management bought the complex five years ago for an estimated $600 million, financed with a $340 million mortgage from Deutsche Bank. The loan matured last November. After the borrower entities allegedly defaulted, Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure complaint in March, per Bisnow.

The case is pending in New York State Supreme Court. In August, a judge granted the bank’s request for a receiver, who tapped Shadowbox to operate the studios. Bisnow said Hackman and attorneys for both sides did not respond to requests for comment, and Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Asked about the dispute, Laub said he would leave the details of ownership to the receiver and the bank, though he added that Shadowbox expects to be a long-term partner at Kaufman Astoria.

The studio’s recovery follows a rough stretch. Back-to-back strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA in 2023, which centered on job protections amid the rise of artificial intelligence, cost the entertainment industry roughly $5 billion that year alone, Bisnow reported. Production restarted unevenly through 2024, and the new labor deals changed the financing model for productions, pushing many shoots overseas. Streaming demand also cooled from its post-pandemic peak, which cut into the rents studio landlords could collect.

Laub pointed to the human toll. The strikes strained electricians, camera operators and others who depend on active sets, he said, in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Peter Romano, who has worked at Kaufman Astoria for 43 years and is now executive vice president, grew emotional discussing the renewed activity. “I’ve missed a lot of friends over the last couple of years,” he told Bisnow. “I am very thrilled to be busy.”

Other studio owners have faced harder landings. Bisnow noted that Hackman handed its Radford Studio Center in Los Angeles back to lenders in January after defaulting on a $1.1 billion mortgage in 2025. Hudson Pacific Properties and Blackstone secured a one-year extension on a $1.1 billion loan tied to a portfolio of Hollywood studios, agreeing to fund $20 million in leasing reserves. Some owners are weighing alternative uses, from a children’s amusement park at an Atlanta studio to pickleball courts.

New York is pushing to keep its share. The state revamped its film tax credit program last year to compete with hubs such as Canada, Australia and South Korea. Rafael Espinal, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, told Variety last month the changes have made the city “one of the more affordable places to shoot in the world.”

The campus has deep roots. Built as the original home of Paramount Pictures, it was New York’s first major film studio and later produced more than 2,000 training films for the U.S. Army during World War II, according to the report. For now, the soundstages are full, even as the courtroom fight over who owns them continues.