The former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility in Charleston is now being used as a TV and movie set.
Production company Broadway Stages won a bid to purchase the vacant property in 2014, but due to recent investigations into political contributions, that sale has been halted by the state Comptroller's office.
But, film companies are still able to utilize the state-run space, as Broadway Stages continues to maintain it with plans to re-submit an application and build sound stages.
"I've seen many scouts myself here and I think the need will keep growing and growing and once we have extensive production facilities and office space within the buildings where it doesn’t have to be in base camps outside,” Warren Cohn, spokesperson for Broadway Stages said. “I think it'll only keep growing."
You might recognize the former 67-acre medium security prison from shows like "The Blacklist," "The Americans," or "Blindspot,” in which UFC fighter Ronda Rousey was recently a guest.
If and when the sale goes through to Broadway Stages, sets such as solitary confinement, no-contact phones and correctional officer control rooms will be maintained and not be turned into a sound stage.
"There's nothing like the authenticity of the original bars and the original SHU,” Cohn said. “They're looking for that all the time and it's much harder to do that in a controlled or sound stage facility, here you're going to have sound stages but you're also going to have the authentic prison facility that once existed here."
Broadway Stages is optimistic about the purchase going through, and Borough President James Oddo says he hopes it does, because he says it will bring in roughly 1,500 jobs.
"This is an integral part of the economic development in the economy of Staten Island,” he said. “And a lot of smaller mom and pop shops can feed off of that studio and that's why this is critical in many ways."
But for now it remains an empty prison, and occasionally, a film set.