By Bill Parry
Studio Square has been a big hit with soccer fans who have filled the 30,000-square-foot cobblestone beer garden to watch World Cup games on a giant 10-by-16-foot HD video screen every day this week.
“It’s a spectacular place to watch the games,” soccer fanatic Eoghan Mcpardland said. “I’ve never seen so many people from so many different nations in one spot, it really is amazing.”
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) marveled at the crowd after attending Studio Square Monday evening.
“I watched the USA beat Ghana at Studio Square and it was just magical with thousands of people there,” he said.
Crowds will get larger as the tournament progresses and the games increase in importance, according to Studio Square Marketing Director Peter Mason.
Mason’s attention has been diverted away from the crowds by the sale of the popular event space, at 35-37 36th St. in Long Island City. The six-story former warehouse has been sold to Emmes Asset Management for $30 million by Studio Square’s corporate owner, S Hospitality Group.
While there will be changes, the 5-year-old beer garden will not be one of them.
“We negotiated a long-term deal for the garden,” Studio Square marketing chief Peter Mason said. “We’ll maintain the garden intact with no operational changes. This is not going to be what happened at Rebar where suddenly it was shuttered. I want to make that clear.”
The changes will come to the private event spaces inside the warehouse itself. Emmes Asset Management forged the deal to benefit one of its pension fund clients and will start taking over the upper floors after Studio Square fulfills all of its contracts for social and corporate events in July 2015.
These spaces include 10,000 square feet of event space and private terraces that are used for weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate parties.
“Emmes will change it over to a collaborative workspace for tech startup companies,” Mason said. “That’s who they’re targeting and I think it will actually open up a whole new stream of business for us at Studio Square.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
