Douglas Craig Steiner is a Brooklyn-based real estate developer who developed properties in New Jersey and New York and other states.^[2][3] In addition, he was chairman of Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, New York, the largest studio in the United States on the east coast.^[2][4]

Steiner grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. He worked at one point as a gardener during his college years.^[1] Initially he wanted to be a novelist but while studying creative writing at Stanford, where he was editor of Stanford's humor magazine, he found writing to be "torture."^[4] After graduation, he lived for six months in Paris, supported by his father David S. Steiner, but returned thereafter to work at his father's real estate development firm.^[1]

At his father's firm, Steiner worked to develop numerous properties, such as office expansions and condominiums. He describes himself as a control freak; for example, he insists that office temperatures be kept at 63 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year.^[4] In recent years, his firm is constructing an L-shaped 56-story condominium tower called The Hub, at 333 Schermerhorn Street, which has been predicted to be the tallest building in Brooklyn after completion.^[5][6]

The father-son team created a film and TV production company called Steiner Studios. In 1999, they won the right to develop the Brooklyn Navy Yard into a film and TV production complex, which opened in 2004.^[4] The Yard had been a massive military complex, which closed in 1966, and later became a manufacturing center.^[7] Developing the complex had been projected to cost around $400 million and would require twelve years to finish. Plans called for an underwater stage as well as restoration of the Naval hospital, originally built in 1838 using marble.^[4] The transformation of the Brooklyn Navy Yard had been forecast to be completed by 2018.^[7]

Numerous films and TV shows have been made at the production facility, including the 2006 movie Fur starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr.,^[8] the 2005 film The Producers starring Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane and Uma Thurman,^[8] as well as Spider-Man, Sex and the City, and Boardwalk Empire.^[1] The Steiner Studios site is 15 acres, according to several reports.^[8][9] The site has been expanded numerous times to include a parking lot with 1000 spots and five massive interconnected state-of-the-art soundstages.^[3] Development was beset by obstacles such as the September 11 attacks^[3] in 2001 as well as cutbacks in a tax-credit program by New York State in 2009.^[10] He helped bring in Wegmans supermarkets to the Brooklyn Navy Yard project.^[11] In addition, he led efforts to bring academic programs focused on media to the city; for example, he worked with Carnegie Mellon to offer an "integrated media program" consisting of an academic program focused on the arts and technology, in conjunction with Steiner Studios;^[12] and he has worked with the City University of New York to have its Barry R. Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema located at Steiner Studios.^[13]

The company benefits from New York's movie production incentive program. Steiner donated $40,000 to incumbent New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2022 campaign. The company spends $10,000 a month on lobbyists.^[14]

Steiner has three grown children.^[1] He collects art by Gary Panter, Suzan Pitt and Jane Dickson, and said he prefers "weird, disturbing or strange art."^[1]