By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
After a public hearing on June 26, the village of Liverpool Planning Board approved a special-use permit to allow the proposed Liverpool School of Cinema to operate as a trade school at 800 Fourth St., at the village’s historic Zogg Building.
The applicant, Hollywood director Jeremy Garelick, updated his site plan and the planning board voted unanimously to approve both the special-use permit and the site plan.
The Village Board of Trustees had previously changed the definition of “school” as applied to the Zogg property to include “trade school.”
“The applicant now has the three village approvals they wanted to proceed to closing on [purchase of] the property,” said Planning Board Chairman Joe Ostuni Jr.
Last year, the property’s selling price was $1,295,000.
Mayor Gary White and several other village officials attended a March 7 meeting at the Zogg auditorium at which Garelick outlined his plans before an audience of about 400. He’s tentatively titling the project Liverpool School of Cinema.
Garelick plans to convert the 89-year-old building into a trade school for aspiring movie-makers.
“We want to mentor students by producing several films here – three to five annually – to give students hands-on training, so they know what it’s like to work on a movie set,” he said. The movies would each be budgeted between $6 million and $15 million.
The director, whose biggest hit was 2015’s “The Wedding Ringer” starring comedian Kevin Hart, said he hopes to begin making movies with students as early as next spring.
Garelick’s Syracuse attorney, Bob Germain, told village officials that three local colleges have already committed involvement with the proposed trade school.
