Yet another large film and TV studio is planned for New Jersey, a state that has reinstated and sweetened the tax incentives it is offering production companies to shoot their projects locally.

Togus Urban Renewal is slated to start construction in the first quarter on 1888 Studios at a former Texaco oil refinery site at 40 Ave. A on Bayonne's waterfront. The 17-building studio campus will include soundstage buildings, flexible support and office spaces, and workshop and mill buildings where stage sets will be constructed and stored. The name of the studio, which will be 1.5 million square feet, refers to the year the motion picture camera was invented.

A lawyer representing Togus, which is based in Newark, New Jersey, described the project as "the largest ground-up movie studio ever developed in North America," according to the Hudson Reporter. New Jersey is the birthplace of the modern film industry, with the first studio run by inventor Thomas Edison in West Orange.

New Jersey has seen a flurry of movie studio development since Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Legislature restored offering tax incentives to film and television producers in July 2018. Then-Gov. Chris Christie in 2015 had suspended the program. In the past few years since the tax breaks were reinstated under the Film & Digital Media Tax Credit Program, New Jersey has updated them and made them even more financially attractive for movie and TV companies.

The need for studios where video content can be produced has soared with the rise of streaming services — such as Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney+ and Paramount Plus — that require programming for their subscribers, with demand spilling over from Los Angeles. In light of that, and New Jersey's enhanced tax incentives, several smaller studios have been built in the Garden State, and larger ones are planned.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority didn't immediately respond to an email asking if the Bayonne facility was getting any state tax incentives.

In May, Hollywood movie studio Lionsgate, producer Robert Halmi and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center said they were partnering to build a $125 million TV and movie production complex in Newark, the Garden State's largest city. At the time, that project was trumpeted as the first purpose-built studio in New Jersey to be specifically constructed for TV and film production. The 300,000-square-foot facility is slated for Newark’s South Ward on the site of the former Seth Boyden public housing complex at 164 Dayton St.

Then in June, Netflix was one of four bidders for a so-called Mega Parcel at nearly 300 acres, which spans parts of Eatontown and Oceanport at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey. The Los Gatos, California-based streaming giant proposed building a large film and TV production hub at the site. The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, known as FMERA, is weighing the bids now.

Togus has awarded New York-based Turner Construction Co. the contract to build the Bayonne studio facility. More than 2,000 construction workers are expected to work on the redevelopment project, which will have between 2,000 and 3,000 full-time employees when it is complete.

Turner Construction looks “forward to viewing the creative work that will be produced in these groundbreaking facilities," Larry Boresen, the company's vice president and general manager, said in a statement. The redevelopment will include a revitalized waterfront park and promenade on the campus, according to Boresen.

The project was designed by architectural firm Gensler.

The site of 1888 Studios is near the Bayonne Bridge, which spans the Kill Van Kull and connects Bayonne with Staten Island in New York City.