By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
“We have a long list of improvements planned for the old Zogg Building,” Mayor Gary White told the Liverpool Board of Trustees at its monthly meeting on Jan. 13. Jeremy Garelick’s film company, American High, operates a trade school called Academy at Syracuse Studios at the historic high-school building at 800 Fourth St.
“We need to hold American High’s feet to the fire about that list,” White added.
The Liverpool Planning Board chaired by Joe Ostuni Jr. will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27, at the Village Hall, 310 Sycamore St., to discuss American High’s progress.
Concerns raised by village Codes Officer Bill Reagan center on interior renovations in line with village ordinances, as well as parking and other traffic issues.
Last fall, American High finished filming a movie here called “The Binge” starring Vince Vaughn. During its production, hundreds of extras showed up for scenes shot at Zogg, and their vehicles filled the parking lot and overflowed onto the asphalt basketball court and the dilapidated tennis courts, both located on Birch Street, behind the building.
At the planning board’s Oct. 28 meeting, Chairman Ostuni said that the 100,000-square-foot film school needs to enumerate the parking spaces that might be accommodated on the two courts and then have the updated site plan reviewed by the board.
Regarding renovations inside the 90-year-old brick structure, planner John Eallonardo encouraged American High’s business manager, Paul Stacey, to develop a four- or five-year plan for interior rehabilitation including a budget.
Hollywood director Jeremy Garelick bought the Liverpool property in 2017 for an estimated $1 million before hooking up with Mickey Liddell’s LD Entertainment to launch American High here to make high-school comedy features.
The 45-year-old Garelick wrote and directed 2015’s “The Wedding Ringer,” a hit comedy starring Kevin Hart which grossed $79.8 million, more than tripling its production budget of $23 million.
Correction times two
In our coverage of the Oct. 28 Planning Board meeting which ran in the Nov. 6 edition of the Star-Review, we mistakenly quoted resident Barbara Dennehy, who lives across the street from the American High building.
We reported that she’d seen film school staffers parking on sidewalks, but in fact Dennehy saw them driving on the sidewalks, clearly posing a safety hazard for pedestrians, including schoolchildren.
Not only did we misquote Dennehy, we also misspelled her last name.
Our reporter regrets the errors.
