Ex-Firehouse Converting To Community TV Center
New York City Funds Help East Harlem Gain Neighborhood TV Production
By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 2/27/2008 11:33:00 PM MT
Manhattan Neighborhood Network has begin converting a 124-year-old former firehouse into a media center with live broadcast and production studios, editing studios and a training center for the community’s youth.
MNN, a non-profit group that operates four public, education and government (PEG) channels on Time Warner Cable and RCN, obtained $5 million in tax-exempt funding from the New York City Industrial Development Authority and an $850,000 grant from Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer for the project.
MNN executive director Dan Coughlin said the facility – a four-story red-brick building that once was home to Engine 53 – is expected to complete its transformation into a community media center by early next year.
“With the support of the cable industry that finances us and local government, we’re bringing technology to Harlem, we’re bringing technology to local neighborhoods,” Coughlin said.
MNN is one of the biggest PEG operations in the country, with a $4 million annual operating budget and 45 full-time staffers, Coughlin said. It produces some 20,000 hours of programming per year.
He described the long-closed building on East 104th St. as well-suited to TV production and meeting spaces because of high ceilings and large open spaces.
MNN said it will work with East Harlem schools and community organizations to provide youth with mentoring and training in media technology, and provide full access to new technology at no charge to the public at large.
The 10,000-square-foot building will have exhibition space, broadband Internet access and a large multipurpose space for performances or community meetings on the first two floors. The top two floors will become the new headquarters for MNN’s youth channel and programs.
The firehouse project is being designed by Kostow Greenwood Architects, a full-service Manhattan-based architecture studio located in SoHo. Broadcast clients include CNN, NBC, PBS, MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon and HBO Studio Productions.
