30 THE QUEENS COURIER • QUEENS BUSINESS • SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
queens business
COVID-19 may claim Long Island City fi lm
studio and one man’s ‘American Dream’
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
A longtime celebrity photographer who
worked with Muhammad Ali and Miles
Davis in the ’70s and ’80s and hip-hop
stars like Mary J. Blige, Jay Z and a Tribe
Called Quest in the ’80s and ’90s, parlayed
his personal fortune into opening
Brooklyn Studios, one of the few minority
owned fi lm and video sound stages in
the shadows of the Queensboro Bridge in
Long Island City.
Now, his three-building complex, just
off Vernon Boulevard, is in danger of
closing due to the fi nancial impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Joseph Grant began his second career
with a small photo studio in Hell’s
Kitchen in the 1980s before opening his
New Era Studio in Soho in the 1990s. In
2006, he opened his fi rst Brooklyn Studios
on Meserole Avenue in Greenpoint,
Brooklyn, before looking north to the
growing fi lm industry neighborhood in
Long Island City.
Upon fi nding a 10,000-square-foot
warehouse a block from the East River,
Grant transformed a greasy garage into
a showcase studio investing in a new
roof, soundproofi ng, bathrooms,
production offi ces and an HVAC
system. As Grant was working
toward getting the property
up to code, he was doing
everything necessary to qualify
for New York’s “Made in
New York” tax incentive program
to make a business like
Brooklyn Studios attractive
to potential clients, given
the benefi ts and tax credits
associated with it.
Despite pouring his life savings into his Long Island City fi lm studio, COVID-19 may smash Joe Grant’s
“American Dream.”
“I took on two other properties and
invested more than a million and a half
dollars into the complex even though
they were rental buildings,” Grant said.
By February 2020, as Grant was wrapping
up the renovations, Brooklyn
Studios had clients “chomping at the
bit” to rent out the studio space. Netfl ix
expressed serious interest in renting out
all three buildings for the production of
the popular series “Russian Doll” to the
point of sending Brooklyn Studios a contract
for Grant’s lawyers to review on
March 11.
“But then President Trump declared
the coronavirus emergency and everything
shut down,” Grant said. “Th e following
day, March 12, Netfl ix halted all
productions.”
While Grant has managed to keep
Brooklyn Studios “running” these past
few months, he is now faced with hard
facts.
“If work doesn’t pick up quickly, if I
can’t take on larger productions, I may be
forced to close my doors,” Grant said.
At 67 years of age, it’s a hard reality to
face. Had COVID-19 not struck, Grant
would have had a major success story: a
successful fi lm studio, a minority-owned
business, created by a self-made African-
American man. Instead, he sits atop a
once-successful business that is on the
brink of collapse, due to the coronavirus
emergency.
Photos courtesy of Brooklyn Studios
“I look around and I see operations
like Kaufman Astoria Studios and Steiner
down in Brooklyn getting millions from
the state, but all I’ve been able to get was
$150,000 in federal funds through the
Paycheck Protection Program and the
EIDL loan which helped get Brooklyn
Studios through the fi rst few months of
the shutdown,” Grant said. “When that
money ran out, we went back to the federal
Small Business Administration to see if
we could get more money, but instead we
received a form email.”
Th e SBA email said, “At this time we are
unable to off er a higher loan amount than
what has been approved. During these
unprecedented times and given our current
funding levels we are not increasing
previously approved loan amounts for the
EIDL program. We had to make a diffi cult
decision to limit loan amounts to ensure
the program reaches as many small businesses
as possible.”
As his 68th birthday draws near on
Sept. 11, Grant realizes he has poured his
heart, soul and life savings into his version
of the American Dream, but instead
he is facing closure, debt and possible
bankruptcy.
“I have two people working the phones
trying to help us fi nd a way, but we’re getting
no guidance from the government
on what to do next to save the business,”
Grant said. “I just don’t know what else I
can do.”
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