By Vin Gopal
The local small businesses, labor unions, chambers of commerce, and other stakeholders were curious when they arrived at Monmouth University for a meeting that we hosted with Netflix executives in 2023.
They left excited.
We wanted to ensure that Netflix’s leadership understood the importance of engaging local businesses and labor unions as their project progressed. We sought and received assurances that the studio at Fort Monmouth would not only bring an estimated $4 billion to the New Jersey economy, but would also bring significant revenue to our small family-owned businesses in Monmouth County. As a Netflix executive assured the group, “A studio is a small town, and we have small-town needs.”
We share the excitement that representatives of regional and local chambers of commerce expressed for the road ahead. Like them, our enthusiasm continues to grow, and with good reason. The Netflix Studio campus will transform the Garden State, once again, into a major player in film and television production, with 12 state-of-the-art soundstages totaling nearly 500,000 square feet. But not all filming will take place in studios. Camera crews and actors will become more frequent visitors to many Monmouth County towns that will serve as destinations for shooting scenes. That will spill over into business for local coffee shops and restaurants, hardware stores, and other local businesses.
In addition to creating up to 3,500 construction jobs while it’s being built, Netflix Studios is boosting the local economy and helping make up for the blow to the area caused by the U.S. Army’s closure of Fort Monmouth. Netflix estimates the completed studio will employ 1,400 people. Many of them will be area residents, holding a wide range of jobs, from extras to marketing and accounting positions, as the studio generates between $3.8 billion and $4.6 billion in economic impact for New Jersey.
We are proud to have supported the development by Netflix Studios at Fort Monmouth. We have hosted numerous meetings between Netflix and local vendors to ensure our local shops are involved in conversations every step of the way.
We were also the primary sponsor of legislation that became law last year and removed from current law a time limitation imposed on municipalities to issue special alcoholic beverage consumption licenses at a former federal military installation. This legislation will help transform the sprawling 289-acre site spanning Eatontown and Oceanport into the “small town” that Netflix described in our 2023 meeting at Monmouth University.
Many people in Monmouth County worked to make the Netflix Studios a reality, including local elected officials, especially those in Eatontown and Oceanport, as well as from Monmouth County government. It took the support of too many chambers of commerce to name them all, as well as the labor unions, and the NJ Restaurant Association. But it’s been gratifying to see how the local small business community got behind this project.
In supporting the Netflix Studios at Fort Monmouth, all of these organizations and individuals have brought New Jersey a step closer to becoming “Hollywood of the East.” But it’s really just recognizing and restoring our state’s place as a film industry pioneer.
After all, the American film industry started in New Jersey with the construction of Thomas Edison's "Black Maria", the first motion-picture studio in West Orange, at the end of the 19th century. The state benefited significantly from the phenomenal growth of the film industry at the turn of the 20th Century. It has continued to attract many filmmakers with its variety of great environments to shoot scenes for movies and television shows.
We look forward to Netflix Studio’s development, which will be the next step in New Jersey's rich history of filmmaking and entertainment.
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