A new 165,000 square foot film studio will be built in the city’s Port Lands district, answering calls from numerous industry leaders who have expressed concerns over a lack of studio space.
Cinespace Film Studios announced the project on Friday morning, noting that it will replace the studio space that was lost when it sold its Eastern Avenue facility to General Motors.
The new studio will be larger than the old site on Eastern Avenue, resulting in a net gain in available studio space. Once complete it will occupy Marine Terminal 51 and a portion of the cruise ship terminal, though the city says that it will not displace cruise ship activities.
“Our film, television and digital industry has been such a booming success that we have been victims of our own success,” Mayor John Tory said following the announcement on Friday morning. “”This space makes sure that we can keep offering our film, television and digital clients the studio space that they want and need for their productions and it will allow us not to be in a situation that we have come close to before where somebody calls up, really want to come here and we have to sort of scramble to figure out if there is a space to put them.”
Amid a shortage in studio space, Tory said that all city agencies were asked to examine their real estate portfolio to determine whether they might have space that could host a new facility.
He said that the arrangement in the Port Lands came about after PortsToronto agreed to lease a parcel of underutilized land near the foot of Cherry Street to Cinespace.
Tory said that the agreement will allow Toronto’s film industry to continue growing. Last year, Toronto’s film industry generated about $2 billion in economic activity.
“It is not just about the jobs and economic success; it is about the degree to which it creates the reality that Toronto is a centre of innovation and creativity and talent,” Tory said. “It is an important message to send out to the rest of the world.”
Cinespace already expanding Etobicoke studio
Cinespace Film Studios says the new facility in the Port Lands is part of its “multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment and intensification initiative.”
The announcement of the Port Lands facility comes after Cinespace broke ground on new studio facilities at its campus in Etobicoke in September. Once complete, those facilities will include 50,000 square feet of production space.
In a news release issued on Friday morning, Cinespace President and CEO Steve Mirkopoulos said locating the new facility in the Port Lands was important because it allows his company to maintain a presence in “Toronto’s strategically important studio district.”
A date has not been provided for when the new facility will be operational.
