Latest news with #Astoria-based
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
FDNY chaplain's signature forged on letter backing Queens pot dispensary
They'll burn for this one! The owners of a legal Queens marijuana dispensary are under fire for allegedly trying to dupe government officials to back their expansion efforts — by claiming the FDNY's top religious leader is high on the plan. A recently circulated letter supporting Astoria-based Terp Bros' application to open a second dispensary in Ozone Park that was 'purportedly authored and signed' by FDNY Chaplain Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, 'appears to be a forgery,' warned FDNY Deputy Commissioner of General Counsel Don Nguyen in a June 5 letter to Queens Community Board 10. Advertisement The FDNY has 'no position' in general on applications to run cannabis dispensaries in the Big Apple, he added in the letter, obtained by The Post. 3 FDNY Chaplain Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello told The Post he wasn't aware of the letter. Stefano Giovannini The bogus letter addressed to 'legislators, Community Boards and the NYS Office of Cannabis Management' claimed Gigantiello is pushing Terp Bros' plan because 'safe use of Hemp and other Cannabis plants is long overdue.' Advertisement 'We must help those like Terp Bros gain the opportunity to continue working with the community in providing them with a safe, legal way to purchase cannabis and cannabis-related products,' the faux holy man wrote. Terp Bros' co-owners Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone opened their pot shop at 3610 Ditmars Blvd. in October 2023. In April, Time Out magazine ranked it New York's ninth best weed dispensary out the state's 405 licensed cannabis shops. The letter tries to portray Rivera — an ex-con who spent 11 years in jail for criminal possession of controlled substances and robbery — as a sympathetic figure. 3 Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone opened their Astoria pot shop in October 2023 and earlier this year, Time Out magazine ranked it New York's ninth best weed dispensary out the state's 405 licensed cannabis shops. Kyle Stevens/Shutterstock Advertisement He, 'his family, and many others like him have paid a great price caused by wrongful and failed policy targeting minorities and the failed war on drugs as it pertains to hemp and other cannabis,' it reads. Gigantiello insisted to The Post he didn't write or authorize the letter — and never even heard of the weed joint until learning of the letter. 'I had no idea. Someone shouldn't be using using my name in any form,' added the monsignor, who made headlines two years after being relieved of his administrative duties for allowing pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a racy music video inside Our Lady of Mt. Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg. 3 Owners of the popular shop didn't respond to messages seeking comment. Helayne Seidman Advertisement The board rejected the pot shop's application in January — and said it didn't get the letter until only a few weeks ago. Board members showed the letter to NYC Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who alerted the Fire Department. 'It's very telling that someone would fake a letter from a monsignor because they couldn't deal with the results of a community board vote,' Ariola said. 'If they didn't like the way the board voted, I get it, but forging a letter from an FDNY chaplain is the absolute worst way to try and change their opinion.' The state's Office of Cannabis Management will ultimately decide whether to approve the plan. Messages left for Terp Bros' owners were not returned.
New York Post
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Inside the Robert De Niro-backed, state-of-the-art ‘vertical film studio' that's changing NYC's entertainment industry
In a city where every square foot is precious, Wildflower Studios built up. Opened in Astoria, Queens, in December 2024, the production hub features 11 sound stages stacked across three floors. Billed as the world's first ever 'vertical film studio,' it's a state-of the art, billion-dollar bet on New York City's entertainment industry, offering a blueprint for how movies and TV series can be made in even the densest urban centers. 10 Wildflower Studios, opened in December 2024, is the world's first vertical production hub and features 11 sound stages stacked across three floors. Emmy Park The project's principal developer, Adam Gordon, told NYNext that the most important thing for him and Robert De Niro — a key investor in the project, alongside his Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal — 'was to create permanent jobs for this incredible industry in New York City … and to create a permanent home for artists to tell their stories.' 'I've worked in just about every kind of studio over the years, from classic soundstages to makeshift locations,' said Rosenthal told NY Next. 'What's always been missing in New York is a space designed by creatives for creatives. Prior to opening the studio, Gordon, a 64-year-old real estate developer, was a relative stranger to the film industry. 10 New York film legend Robert De Niro is one of the major backers behind Wildflower Studios. When the team was in the early stages of designing the space, De Niro sent Gordon and his son, Rafael, a Wildflower partner, on a trip across the country to identify what other studios were doing right and wrong. CBS His company, also called Wildflower and launched in 2017, was a major player in the self-storage space and critical partner to Amazon — providing the e-commerce giant with warehouse and parking space throughout the metro area. The e-commerce giant, though, wasn't the only one interested in his developments. 10 Adam Gordon speaks with NYNext's Lydia Moynihan in the interior street that runs up from street level and throughout the first floor of Wildflower Studios. The enormous space was built so box trucks could easily maneuver directly to sound stages. Emmy Park 'People were knocking on our door, seeing if we would rent them space for film productions,' Gordon told NY Next. So, he went to De Niro — they're long-time friends, having met through their children — and asked the movie star if he thought there was a 'real business' there. The Manhattan-born actor, famous for his portrayals of New York City characters, had long dreamed of opening a purpose-built studio. Production space in the five boroughs had always lagged behind demand, leaving artists to work in makeshift warehouses or trek to New Jersey, Atlanta and beyond. 10 Adam Gordon is a fourth-generation New Yorker and the developer behind Wildflower Studios. The Astoria-based facilities are heralding in a new era of film and television production for New York City. Emmy Park The project kicked off in 2019, with De Niro sending Gordon and his son Rafael Gordon, 48 and a Wildflower partner, on a national studio tour — including stops in Los Angeles and Atlanta — to scope out the competition. 'I was shocked by the lack of thought that went into [these spaces],' Gordon said. 'We came back with [all of these] ideas, which coalesced into a high performance film studio — efficient, poetic, beautiful and fun.' The team, headlined by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels — designer of Manhattan's VIA 57 West and The Spiral — was forensic in designing the space. They conducted dozens of interviews with everyone from teamsters — 'no one had ever asked [them their] opinion before,' Gordon said — to A-listers, gathering insight into what would be most useful on set. Their resulting list of should-haves was encyclopedic. 10 There are eleven sound stages inside Wildflower Studios — the largest of which is 16,500-square-feet. Adjacent to each stage are dedicated scene shops, hair and makeup spaces and dressing rooms. Emmy Park 'It became like a three-dimensional puzzle, packing all of these requirements into the volume,' Ingels told NYNext. 'We orchestrated the necessities in such a way that it ends up creating a kind of character … that compression was quintessentially New York.' From inception to opening, the project took about five years and cost a billion dollars, Gordon said. At 765,000-square-feet, the facilities are so large they even have their own navigation app. Ingels, who had also seen the 'dire conditions' filmmaker friends worked in, chose a raw material palette of galvanized steel and concrete, the humble materials accentuating his cavernous design. The eleven sound stages — which include cutting-edge augmented- and virtual-reality production spaces — are connected by an internal street, large enough for a box truck, and serviced by an army of elevators, six of which are capable of supporting the size and weight of an elephant. 10 The aptly named 'elephant elevators,' of which there are six, are a critical part of the studio's vertical design — ensuring materials can be transported seamlessly. Emmy Park A truck-sized turntable (inspired by Jay Leno's garage) helps teamsters maneuver to the loading docks. There's even a teamsters' lounge that gives drivers a comfortable place to rest instead of idling outside. Each stage — the largest is 16,500-square-feet — is a self-contained unit, with adjacent scene shops, dressing rooms (all exactly the same size, so as not to damage egos or trigger contractual issues) and support spaces. 10 In the back of the studio complex is an 18-wheeler-sized turntable, inspired by Jay Leno's garage, which allows teamsters to back directly up against the studio's docks to unload materials. Emmy Park 'You don't have to take a golf cart [because the] carpentry shops are two miles away. Everything is where you need it,' said Gordon, who estimates that Wildflower is enabling productions to be 20% to 30% more efficient. The studio's 'Hollywood-in-a-box' approach also includes post-production suites, office space and a single commissary staffed by visiting chefs from the James Beard Foundation. 'Filmmaking is a very stressful process sometimes,' Gordon said. 'People want to feel taken care of and understood. There's a lot of psychology in the design here [to achieve that].' 10 There is only one commissary in Wildflower Studios, which Gordon said reflects the democracy imbued throughout the entirety of the facilities. 'Everyone eats the same food together from the same kitchen at the same tables because filmmaking is a collaborative process, and Robert [De Niro] wanted to honor that,' Gordon said. Emmy Park He also said that Wildflower is 'the most sustainable [film studio] in the world.' The roof holds 150,000 square-feet of solar panels and the building opens up once an hour to let fresh air in and paint gasses out. Industry discretion precludes him from mentioning who has filmed inside so far, but Gordon will divulge that the very first thing shot inside Wildflower was a scene from season two of 'Elsbeth,' CBS's NYC-based procedural comedy-drama. 10 A fully functional Joe's coffee truck (Joe, Gordon said, is his cousin) whips around the internal street bringing coffee to workers on the sound stages. Emmy Park Portions of feature films, as well as commercials, have also been shot in the space, he said; at least seven stages will be occupied throughout May. And the boom hasn't even yet begun. Governor Kathy Hochul's proposed budget, now headed to the legislature for a full vote, includes sizable enhancements to New York's film tax credit — among them, a $100 million fund for independent productions and a faster payout structure for new applicants. If ratified, the program will last through 2036. 10 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed budget includes a slew of enhancements to the state's film tax credit programs, which will enable more productions to shoot in studios like Wildflower. Hans Pennink for NY Post This story is part of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC's power players (and those who aspire to be). There will always be filmmaking in New York, but Hochul's enrichment of the credit framework opens the door for a new class of artists — especially those with smaller budgets — to take advantage of Wildflower and all NYC has to offer. 'Wildflower,' Rosenthal said, 'finally gives the city the world-class production home it deserves.' Send NYNext a tip: nynextlydia@
