Cinespace has broken ground on a 50,000 square foot expansion of its Etobicoke campus, a move that officials say will help address the growing shortage of available film and television studio space in Toronto.
The expansion of the Kipling Avenue campus will include two 20,000 square foot studios and connecting support space that will be constructed side-by-side.
When the expansion is operational in August, 2018, Cinespace says that it will allow their studios to simultaneously accommodate seven major productions at any given time.
“This is the kind of space that we have had clients asking for but haven’t had available. All of our space has been full for the last six years. It is great to be busy but it is also great to be at the top of the phone list in Los Angeles and when you keep turning people away you start to fall down the list,” Cinespace Vice President Jim Mirkopoulos told CP24 on Thursday morning. “We want to be at the top of the list again and we want our city to be at the top of the list. More capacity is the way to do that.”
The film and television production industry has grown tremendously in Toronto in recent years, creating 40,000 jobs and contributing a record $2 billion to the city’s economy in 2016.
The rise in the number of productions has had an impact on the inventory of available studio space, though.
There is currently about two million square feet of studio space in Toronto but many facilities are often booked up, forcing studio house operators to turn away some productions.
“There are people who are calling to enquire here and can’t easily find studio space. It is a good news story in some respects but also one we have to address and we are addressing it today,” Mayor Tory told reporters at the ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday. “This development that we are here to announce will be among the things that will trigger additional investments by other people.”
Tory wants to bring Bollywood productions to Toronto
The beginning of construction at Cinespace’s Etobicoke campus comes as countless celebrities descend on the city for the start of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Speaking with reporters, Tory said that the film industry “contributes to “the cultural excitement of the city” and is one of the reasons that Toronto has become a “place that just oozes creativity.”
He said that he plans to “keep fighting” to lure even more productions here and is hopeful that some Bollywood films could one day be shot in Toronto.
In March, Tory led a trade mission to India where he met with a number of film and production executives and participated in a keynote discussion with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta.
“They produce 2,000 feature films a year. If we could just get the tiniest little percentage of that it would be fantastic for Toronto,” Tory said on Thursday.
The Cinespace campus on Kipling Avenue is already the largest and busiest facility in Canada, according to the company.
In 2017, six productions were shot on the campus, including the critically acclaimed series ‘The Handmaid's Tale.’
