As construction of Onondaga County’s $100 million aquarium continues, local officials are starting to roll out some economic partnerships that will be created once the state-of-the art aquarium opens next year. The first involves central New York’s film industry.
Jeremy Garelick has been making movies across central New York for years with the film studio American High. When he got wind of the county offering up the aquarium to film makers, the wheels started turning.
“We all started brainstorming ideas for ‘okay, what kind of idea, these high school kids working in an aquarium, they get sucked into the aquarium,’” said Garelick. “All the things, we love just finding things that are located in Onondaga County and coming up with ideas for them.”
American High is just one organization that’s struck a deal with the county to use the aquarium in the future. The Syracuse Film Office, public broadcaster WCNY, and Studio Central are also interested in projects using the facility.
Studio Central Managing Partner Monty Young said they’ll shift a portion of a children’s program about sea animals they plan to syndicate on WCNY from Florida to Syracuse.
“It's structured where there's 20 minutes of animation followed by 10 minutes of live action, which we will shoot at the aquarium, where kids ask aquarium staff about the issues that we brought up in the show,” Young said.
Studio Central does animation and film post-production in the old Red House and SubCat studios in Syracuse, so Young said after a year of working on animation, they can begin the live shoot once the aquarium opens next year.
One thing making use of the aquarium attractive to movie makers are tax breaks. Onondaga County has tax credits for filmmakers already, and the Syracuse Film Office will begin working to ensure that the state’s tax break program can be applied to filming done in the aquarium. Film Office Executive Director Eric Vinal says that alone creates plenty of interest.
“And really say this is open for business, this is open to film,” Vinal said. “You don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops. You have the county support and really focus on that side of things.”
Construction on the exterior of the aquarium, in Syracuse’s Inner Harbor, is expected to be completed this year. Interior work is expected to be finished before an opening in 2026.
