Location Agreements

Location agreements in New York run under New York State property law, layered with NYC filming rules. The feel shifts a lot by location type. You might deal with a brownstone homeowner in Park Slope, a building manager over a SoHo cast-iron loft, or a co-op board for a Greenwich Village townhouse. Others are a private real-estate op at Industry City or the Brooklyn Navy Yard, or the city itself when filming routes through Parks Department, MTA, or Port Authority property.

Heritage and landmark rules apply at Central Park, Grand Central Terminal, the Brooklyn Bridge, the High Line, and the New York Public Library steps. Each one has its own protocol and signing authority. Our team has signed more than three thousand New York location agreements. So we know which clauses each owner type insists on, which insurance certificates they need, and how to balance access with repair duties.

Our process opens with a location-by-location review of the scout file. We flag each owner, building manager, BID, and city agency that needs to sign. From there, we draft NY-compliant agreements that match the MOME permit. Each one attaches COIs at the standard $1M general liability minimum, naming the property owner and the city. We then set fees against today's Manhattan and Brooklyn market data, often saving fifteen percent off opening asks through ties built over years on NYC sets.

Liability, damage, cancellation, and extension clauses are written to protect both sides. We also sort out competing-production conflicts, which crop up often on popular blocks in Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, or Hudson Yards. Standard turnaround on an agreement is forty-eight hours, and we offer rush drafting when a scout pivot drops mid-prep and the schedule still has to land.