Queens is getting mad props.
A high-tech Manhattan fabrication factory specializing in replica weaponry made for the silver screen is headed for Queens.
The Specialists LTD, which has made spears, knives and armor for “Noah,” tools for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ and vintage weapons and cameras for “Boardwalk Empire,” will trade its 6,000-square-foot home in SoHo for a newly renovated, 40,000-square-foot space in Maspeth by the end of the year.
It’s the latest example of the migration of New York City’s industrial businesses, which have been fleeing neighborhoods that were once manafacturing zones and heading to the outer boroughs.
“There’s not any more New York and there’s always more people, it’s simple supply and demand,” said Ryder Washburn, 36, the Specialists LTD owner. “We are New Yorkers at heart, and that’s why we wanted to stay here.”
The company outgrew its SoHo digs and would have moved out of the city, Washburn said, if not for roughly $4 million in tax breaks it secured through the city’s Industrial Development Agency, money that will help it renovate the new building.
“We didn’t want to (leave the city), but without (the IDA) we would have had to,” said Washburn. “The economics of working in New York can be very difficult.”
New York City lost half its manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2011 as local factors — including rising rents and the rezoning of industrial areas like Williamsburg and Long Island City — forced many businesses to close their doors, move out of the city’s core or leave the city for good.
Queens, in particular, has seen an influx of industry, gaining 762 manufacturers between 2002 and 2012 — the highest in the city, according to statistics from the New York Economic Development Corp.
Washburn said that in the company’s two-year hunt across all five boroughs, they found themselves competing against a pesky procession of residential developers who had set their sights on spaces in mixed use areas, driving rents out of range.
“We definitely ran into a few locations where the building was capable of going condo and we got outbid by a developer,” he said.
The Specialists LTD has been in the city since 1979.
The new location, in Maspeth near the Brooklyn border, will allow the company to add between five and 10 employees, Washburn said, and give them easier access to the booming film production in Brooklyn and Queens.
About 31,500 people were employed in film production in New York City in 2012, according to census data, an increase of 39% since 2002.
“By helping the industrial sector we’re helping create better paying jobs that have better mobility and better skill development,” said Jeff Lee, the executive director of the IDA.
Community members said they’d welcome the faux-weapons producers.
“It’s great as long as they don’t have ammo,” said Gary Giordano, the district manager of Community Board 5.
