Hollywood writers and actors may still be on strike, but that doesn’t kill the plot for Manhattan’s first purpose-built studio campus planned at an underutilized New York City waterfront location.

Vornado Realty Trust has partnered with Los Angeles developer Hudson Pacific Properties and the world's largest commercial real estate owner, Blackstone Group, in a $350 million investment for what’s billed as Manhattan’s first public-private partnership venture to build a film-and-television production campus at Pier 94 along the Hudson River, the parties said Tuesday in a statement.

New York-based Vornado, which contributed its long-term leasehold for Pier 94 to the venture called Sunset Pier 94 Studios, will own 49.9%; Hudson Pacific will own 25.6%; and Blackstone will own 24.5%. Vornado will be responsible for development, and Hudson Pacific will provide design oversight and manage the facility’s leasing and operations. Vornado has a ground and building lease on the site through 2110, according to its annual filing.

New York City Economic Development Corp., the city's economic development arm, is also involved in the project on the far west side of Manhattan by West 52nd Street.

Described as a first-of-its-kind space that will be home to both “state-of-the-art” film and production technology and make New York even more competitive with other comparable markets, the 266,000-square-foot Sunset Pier 94 Studios will include six soundstages. It will have production control room facilities and 145,000 square feet of production support space and offices overlooking the Hudson River, the parties said, adding there also will be ample on-site parking. Several stages will have technological infrastructure for adaptation to virtual production.

“Our partnership with Blackstone, Hudson Pacific, and the City of New York will solidify New York as a leading market for content production and studio space,” Vornado’s president and chief financial officer, Michael Franco, said in the statement. “We’ll raise the bar for one of New York City’s signature industries and breathe new life into a key waterfront site.”

The development also will feature public amenities such as new public restrooms for Hudson River Park, an 1,850-square-foot community amenity space, 25,000 square feet of waterfront open space and pier access, and safety improvements to the bikeway.

Construction is expected to begin in the third quarter using $183 million in financing led by RBC, with the project expected to wrap up by the end of 2025.

“The city has an extensive, well-established production infrastructure yet is highly supply constrained in terms of stages,” Victor Coleman, chairman and CEO of Hudson Pacific, said in the statement, describing the site as “ideally located.”

Hudson Pacific’s portfolio includes about 90 sound stages in six global media markets, according to its website.

Coleman said recently on the company’s earnings call that while writers' and actors’ strikes have led to its studio production in Los Angeles slowing “significantly,” demand for production “remains strong.”

“A strike of this magnitude, while impactful, is rare and has historically proven to be relatively short term in nature,” Coleman said.

Blackstone’s involvement with Pier 94 follows a previous partnership with Hudson Pacific launched in 2020 when the private equity giant bought a 49% interest in Hudson Pacific’s Hollywood Media Portfolio that includes three Hollywood studios and five on-lot or adjacent Class A office properties that total 2.2 million square feet, at a gross portfolio valuation of $1.65 billion. That marked Blackstone’s first foray into the studio sector. Hudson Pacific retained a 51% ownership stake in that portfolio.

Pier 94 will be the first New York location for Hudson Pacific and Blackstone’s growing studio platform that aligns with its existing Los Angeles operations, the companies said.

“Content creation is one of our key global investment themes,” Nadeem Meghji, Blackstone’s head of real estate in the Americas, said in the statement.

The plan for the underused Pier 94 comes as New York has seen a rise in sound stage inventory amid rising content demand.

“New York City is a top market for production due to the strong ecosystem of local talent and labor, the ability to shoot on location, and the advantageous tax credits that help content creators overcome the high costs of filming in New York City,” consulting firm Deloitte has said. “The extensive media ecosystem meets creators’ needs affordably for all aspects of production.”

In addition to production companies based in the city, New York also has highly ranked film schools, including those at New York University and Columbia University, multiple film festivals, and the largest concentration of in-front-of-the-camera and behind-the-camera talent outside of Los Angeles, according to Deloitte.

Total sound stage square footage across New York’s tri-state area jumped 14% since January 2021 through the first quarter of 2022, according to a CBRE report released in April 2022. Among New York’s five boroughs, Brooklyn had the biggest sound stage inventory with a total footprint of 130 stages spanning nearly 1.2 million square feet, CBRE data at the time showed.

Queens came in second place with a total of 553,800 square feet. In contrast, Manhattan, home to shows such as "Saturday Night Live," had a total of about 180,000 square feet and no purpose-built space.

Manhattan’s average soundstage size of 3,900 square feet also was less than half of about 9,000 square feet and 9,900 square feet respectively in Brooklyn and Queens, according to CBRE report.

“With so many production firms and content creators already located in Manhattan, the development of new soundstage inventory is a natural next step in the region’s evolution toward becoming a more holistic media and entertainment ecosystem,” CBRE said at the time.

The Pier 94 development is expected to create more than 1,300 jobs during construction period, 400 permanent jobs and contribute $6.4 billion to the local economy over the next 30 years, according to the statement.

The project comes as New York has recovered 99% of the jobs lost during the pandemic, Mayor Eric Adams said in the statement.