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West Village Studio to the Stars Closes After 20 Years

By DNAinfo Staff on June 30, 2010 5:25pm  | Updated on June 30, 2010 4:27pm

Crews clean out what's left of Horvath Studios.
Crews clean out what's left of Horvath Studios.
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DNAinfo/Nicole Breskin

By Nicole Breskin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

WEST VILLAGE — The final curtain fell this month on a West Village production studio that has been home to hundreds of prominent films over the past two decades.

Horvath Studios at 335 W. 12th St., where Martin Scorsese's “Bring Out the Dead” and “Two Weeks Notice,” starring Sandra Bullock, were shot, had to give up its lease after a private developer decided to move forward with a project at the site.

“It would be nice if we could maintain the studio,” said Simon Hooper, who has managed the studio since it opened. “What can you do? It’s the state of real estate in Manhattan. We had a good run.”

A lawyer for property owner Red Herring Realty Trust wouldn't disclose what the new development was.

When Horvath Studios first opened, the West Village was a different neighborhood, according to Hooper.

Low rents in the 1990s allowed the studio to open three locations in the Village, but management was forced to hire private security guards to police the property because the area was so rough.

“It wasn’t called the Meatpacking District because of its cows,” joked Hooper. “It was dangerous.”

But as time passed and the area became more trendy, rising rents became a big concern for the studio.

By 2004, Horvath Studios closed all of its locations except for the one on West 12th Street. The studio originally owned that location, but sold it in 2001. They had been leasing the property back until this month.

“It’s a business decision and whoever owns that property can make far more converting it into something else,” said John Johnston, executive director of the New York Production Alliance, a film trade association, about Horvath' losing its lease.

Johnston said that these days, the majority of the city's major production studios are in the other four boroughs. “Sex & the City,” for example, was filmed at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, while “Sesame Street” films at Kaufman Studios in Astoria.

After all his time in the industry, Hooper is unsure of whether he will stay in production.

“I have the option to stay, but it doesn’t mean I want it,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”