Lionsgate Studios Newark secured $101 million. It still is not open.

What the $101 million actually pays for

C-PACE is not a general construction loan. It is Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy financing, repaid through a special assessment on the property that works like a tax or utility bill, remitted by the municipality to the capital provider. The municipality has to opt in before any project can apply. The structure buys longer terms and lower rates than conventional debt, which is why it is used for the energy scope specifically.

NJEDA lists what this particular loan funds:

• Seven electric vehicle charging stations.
• A 1.1 megawatt solar system, with anticipated annual generation of 1.34 million kilowatt-hours.
• Building envelope, lighting and electrical HVAC measures projected to cut electricity use by 388,000 kilowatt-hours a year.
• Water conservation measures projected to save 259,000 gallons a year.

This is not the project’s construction budget. C-PACE finances qualifying energy and resiliency improvements, not the whole build. The loan is described as the largest C-PACE transaction closed in New Jersey and the first in Newark, and it sits alongside a senior lender, MCCP. Treating $101 million as the cost of the studio would misread what was announced.

The campus, per the State

NJEDA describes a 12-acre site with six soundstages built to take simultaneous productions of different sizes, plus mill shops for set construction, dedicated production offices, support space and equipment storage. Great Point Studios owns and operates it. Construction is expected to be complete in 2027. The project also commits to career training for Newark high school students, and Great Point has signed a Community Benefits Agreement.

Lionsgate was named New Jersey’s first Studio Partner in December 2022. Under that designation it commits to occupy a New Jersey production facility for at least ten years and is potentially eligible for a 40 percent base credit on qualified New Jersey production expenses. See the tax credit guide for how that tier works, and the note on why all three Studio Partner slots are gone.

Four things that are not the same thing

This is the part that gets flattened every time a studio story runs. A headline number lands, and a month later someone asks us whether they can book a stage in Newark. These are four separate events, in order, and this announcement is the first one.

Financing closing is genuinely meaningful — capital committing to a build is how a rendering turns into a building. It just is not a delivery date, and a projected completion year is not a booking window either. Schedules move.

Do not treat Lionsgate Newark as bookable until its operator says it is. Not when construction tops out, not when a completion date is reported, and not on the strength of a financing announcement. Great Point Studios is the operator; availability is theirs to confirm. If you need a New Jersey stage for a real schedule, work from the facilities that are actually operating today.

Sources

• OfficialNJEDA, closing of the $101M Garden State C-PACE loan for Lionsgate Studios Newark (August 13, 2026)
• OfficialGarden State C-PACE program, how the assessment structure works

Information checked August 16, 2026. Every figure above — the loan amount, acreage, stage count, energy measures and projected completion — is taken from NJEDA’s announcement. Projected completion dates on projects of this size move, and the announcement contains no opening date and no booking information. Spot something outdated? Send a correction.

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