EATONTOWN -- At a couple of minutes past 11 a.m. on May 13, a wrecking ball swung down and smashed through the wall of former Army building No. 1207. And with that, Netflix ushered in the start of the construction of its Netflix Studios at Fort Monmouth with a bang.
Oceanport Mayor Tom Tvrdik playing off the old saying in the film industry that "all roads lead to Hollywood," told the large crowd that came to witness Netflix's groundbreaking moment, that now, "all roads lead to Oceanport and Eatontown," a reference to the two host towns of Netflix's motion picture, television and broadcast studio campus.
It was an historic moment, not lost on the many gathered who remembered the day in 2011 when the Army padlocked the gate to the former army base, signaling its end as the home of the Army's Signal Corps, and later the Communications-Electronics Command.
"For many of us today, this is a very emotional day. My mom worked on this fort. I have memories coming here as a child and I remember the day that it closed. We hoped that it would have been saved," said state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth.
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Eatontown Mayor Anthony Talerico Jr. said the "social fabric of the community was Fort Monmouth." The local economy was intertwined with the army.
"To fill the void the area needed something with the depth and breath of an entire industry, and so here we are. I would like to thank Gov. (Phil) Murphy and his administration the driving force behind the attraction of Netflix to New Jersey," Talerico said.
It was four years ago, during the late spring and early summer of 2021, that the rumor mill started to churn that streaming giant Netflix was going to build a studio on the grounds of the former Fort Monmouth, which started here in 1917 until it was shuttered in 2011 following a round of military base closings across the country.
Those whispers would soon prove true. Gov. Murphy, who played a pivotal role in not just returning the film industry to New Jersey but luring Netflix to the fort with tax incentives and the promise of available land, drew a parallel between the fort's former use and its future as the East Coast hub for Netflix's studio productions.
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It also didn't hurt that Murphy and Sarandos, who was born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, are good friends.
"I cannot think of a better home for Netflix than Fort Monmouth, a facility that boasts it's own legacy of revolutionary innovation," Murphy said. "It was nearly 80 years ago when the U.S. Army worked within the halls of Fort Monmouth to send radar signals to the stars for the very first time as part of what was called Project Diana. And soon Netflix will work within these very same walls to capture and send stars of a different variety into the homes and screens of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide."
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The road to Netflix
After the rumors had simmered for weeks, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, the state agency leading the return of the fort into private hands, created the nearly 300-acre Mega Parcel in July 2021, further fanning the speculation that the streaming giant rumors were real.
The Mega Parcel is the largest tract of land FMERA had every tried to market. It is spread across Eatontown and Oceanport. When drawing its boundaries, FMERA included Parcel B, an 80-acre tract of land that had once been considered the "jewel" of Fort Monmouth. Parcel B begins at the iconic red-brick gate entrance to the fort on Route 35 in Eatontown, but was a stubborn property to sell.
The plan originally was for that property to become a town center. A few developers took a look at it but walked away from the concept. By wrapping that parcel and several others into the Mega Parcel, FMERA was able to create a large enough tract to draw companies such as Netflix that have the need for several hundred acres in a cosmopolitan region.
FMERA then put the Mega Parcel out to bid in 2022, with Netflix getting the award in October of that year to buy it for $55 million and build its East Coast hub at Fort Monmouth.
With the sale to Netflix, which is still in the process of closing, 86% of the fort's 1,127 acres are sold or under redevelopment as FMERA is close to fulfilling its mission to return the fort property to the private and municipal sectors, while also replacing the 5,460 jobs that were lost when the fort closed.
Film, jobs and economic impact
Netlflix will spend about $1 billion to build its studio campus. Netflix has also agreed to create 3,500 jobs during peak construction and between 1,400 to 2,200 permanent jobs once complete.
But the economic impact goes beyond that as the studios are expected to boost the area's small businesses as workers will shop at local stores, use local caterers, or need to find housing, not to mention the tourist traffic. Netflix predicts its economic impact on New Jersey over the next two decades alone will equal $3.8 billion to $4.6 billion.
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More then the investment, the campus will bring a little bit of Hollywood to the Shore, and to New Jersey, the birthplace of the modern film industry. That was a point that Sarandos emphasized when it came his turn to speak.
"This is a homecoming for the film industry. A lot of people outside of New Jersey don't know that the motion picture technology was invented by Thomas Edison at his lab in West Orange," Sarandos said. "He also built the world's first movie studio. It wasn't anything like all this. It was a single room called the Black Maria which rotated on tracks to chase the sun around because the bright lights had not been invented yet."
"Now, it's all coming back to New Jersey in a big way. He (Edison) could not have imagined what we're going to build here, but I bet he'd be pretty impressed," said Sarandos.
First four sound stages
Netflix will build 12 soundstages totaling nearly 500,000 square feet, plus accompanying back lots, ancillary and post-production buildings across Eatontown and Oceanport. However, it will do so in a couple of phases.
Right now, it is kicking off the first phase where will it will put up the first four of its sound studios in the McAfee Parcel or Zone 7, which is 29 acres in the heart of the Mega Parcel. Most of it lays in Oceanport, except for two acres that sit in Eatontown.
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It is eligible for a pool of $125 million in tax breaks at the McAfee Zone under the Garden State Film and Digital Media Jobs Act, if it gets the required approvals and then occupies the studios for at least 10 years.
Two of the sound stages will stand alone and will be roughly 22,000 square feet each and 70 feet tall. The other two will be twin sound stages, adjoined by a wall, and will occupy 83,555 square feet and also stand 70 feet high.
All four sound stages will have so-called "elephant doors" because they're big enough for an elephant to walk through.
Netflix will build two ancillary buildings — a 61,800-square-foot, 35-foot high mill building, where the studio sets will be designed and built, and a roughly 12,000-square-foot warehouse. It will also renovate the McAfee Center, once home to the Army's Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate of the Communications Electronics Research Development and Engineering Center, and an administrative building occupied now by the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority, or FMERA.
The McAfee and FMERA building is where actors and actresses will come in for makeup and hair and to read scripts. Netflix will have the ability to film two productions at once at this campus once it's up and running.
“As the birthplace of the motion picture industry, New Jersey couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Netflix — a name synonymous with 21st century entertainment — to the Garden State,” Murphy said.
“The Netflix studio at Fort Monmouth further solidifies New Jersey’s reputation as a global leader in film and television production, attracting some of the world’s top filmmakers and creators to the state," he continued. "We are grateful to Netflix for choosing New Jersey as its new home on the East Coast and for committing to an investment that will fuel economic growth, generate thousands of new jobs, and bring more patrons to our local businesses.”
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him at [email protected].