Massive Hollywood-Style Film Studio Planned For NJ Waterfront

NEW JERSEY — Bayonne may soon get the Hollywood treatment, as a large-scale film and television studio is planned for the waterfront city.

In the place where an old 74-acre Texaco oil refinery used to stand, 1888 Studios, LLC has proposed a major motion picture studio at the southern tip of the city. Bayonne's Planning Board approved the site proposal on March 30.

Renderings of the studio, designed by San Francisco-based film Gensler, display 19 different buildings on a lot that is reminiscent of old Hollywood, including a waterfront walkway that is lined with palm trees. The renderings also show a variety of sound stages, buildings to house equipment, an office and post-production building and much more.

According to NJ.com, this studio would house 25,450 employees and would reserve some of the property for public use.

Other aspects of the plan including a lighting and grip building, a central utility plant, a utility yard, a trash and recycling area and a facilities yard to support the studio use, as well as surface parking, according to Jersey Digs. Four sub-surface parking structures would be built on the land to provide a total of 2,127 parking spaces.

Project manager Craig Hermann wrote in the project's narrative that soil is currently being imported to raise the site over the flood hazard elevation.

Plans for the film studio first arose in September of 2020 when the city amended the site's redevelopment plan to permit a studio to be built there. The land had be vacant for many years, as Chevron acquired the Texaco land in 2001.

The proposed studio could bring in a lot of revenue for Bayonne. According to NJ.com, revenue from filmmaking in New Jersey exceeded $500 million last year for the first time. The state also recently increased tax credits for digital media projects from a $10 million to $30 million limit.

Full rendering images of the film studio can be viewed on Jersey Digs.