HOLLYWOOD, NY, IT AIN’T
Cuomo’s grand plan now like a di$aster movie
Lights! Action! Lawsuit! Gov. Cuomo’s plan to bring Hollywood to central New York has turned into a horror film with a nasty ending.
The developer that built a state-run film-production facility with $15 million in taxpayers’ money is suing for nearly $1 million in unpaid rent, plus penalties.
The drama began in 2014, when Cuomo decided that producers would want to make films in the lower-cost Syracuse area.
“Hollywood comes to Onondaga,” he declared at the time. “Who would have ever guessed?”
Cuomo directed Fort Schulyer Management Corp., an economic arm of SUNY, to run a film facility in Dewitt, just outside Syracuse. But the project was a flop from the start.
Now the landlord, Cor Development Co., which was paid to build the facility and leases it to Fort Schuyler to manage the film hub, is suing the state affiliate for $934,849 in rent and added penalties.
The suit also asks a judge in Onondaga state Supreme Court to boot the film hub from the premises for being a deadbeat.
“COR is simply enforcing the terms of its commercial lease, under which FSMC took occupancy of a newly completed building and has admittedly failed to pay any rent for over two years,” said Cor spokeswoman Maggie Truax.
Critics said the seldom-used film facility is a symbol of government waste and should have been left on the cutting-room floor in the first place.
“Film Hub was an utter waste of public money on a cockamamie project. These are tax dollars that could have gone to roads, schools or clean water,” said John Kaeheny of the government-watchdog group Reinvent Albany.
“The big question is whether Film Hub is just one of many bad deals made by SUNY Poly and Fort Schuyler that are going to cost taxpayers a bundle.”
The story may have a sequel — in another courtroom.
Two Cor Development execu- tives, Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, face federal charges for allegedly bribing former top Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco and colluding with former Fort Schuyler chief Alain Kaloyeros to steer state contract work to their company. They are the only two of eight defendants who face charges in both trials.
Both pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial next year.
Fort Schuyler said it can’t comment on a pending lawsuit.
“The suit was filed very recently and is currently under review by counsel. We do not comment on pending litigation,” said the agency’s president, Robert Megna, Cuomo’s ex-budget director.
State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox said the film hub and other questionable Cuomo economic development projects, including a $750 million solar plant in Buffalo, will become fodder in next year’s governor’s race.
“This film studio has basically been empty,” Cox said.