| For Immediate Release
June 29th, 2005
FILMPORT gets green light from OMB
Construction starting next year on Canada's largest
film production
complex, including North America's biggest sound stage
TORONTO, Dec. 21 /CNW/ - The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) has
dismissed an appeal that threatened to delay construction of FILMPORT,
the much-awaited film and media production complex approved by City
Council for Toronto's Port Lands.
Toronto Film Studios Inc. (TFS) today announced the OMB dismissed
an appeal by a competing film studio operator who objected to a
minor variance obtained for the 12-hectare FILMPORT site, located
south of Commissioners Street in the Port Lands on lands owned by
the Toronto Economic Development
Corporation (TEDCO). The variance to allow uses ancillary to film
production, had been approved by the City of Toronto's Committee
of Adjustment on June 15, 2005.
"The OMB decision confirms that FILMPORT complies with the
City's vision for regeneration of the Port Lands," said Ken
Ferguson, president of TFS. "With this hurdle out of the way
and construction targeted to start by
next summer, FILMPORT will play an instrumental role in the larger
plan to turn Toronto's Port Land's into an innovation and creativity
district providing knowledge-based jobs in film and media production,
arts, culture and
tourism," Ferguson said.
TFS also announced that two additional OMB appeals involving FILMPORT
have been settled. TFS and TEDCO recently reached an agreement with
a neighbouring recycling business, ensuring FILMPORT activities
will not unduly impact the company's recycling operations. On November
30, a different business owner in the Port Lands withdrew its OMB
appeal involving FILMPORT.
Phase 1 of FILMPORT will comprise 232,500 sq. ft. of production
facilities, including six state-of-the-art sound stages totalling
123,000 sq. ft. and more than 100,000 sq. ft. of production office
and support facilities.
Phase 1 also includes construction of the 45,000 sq. ft. 'mega-stage,'
the largest purpose-built sound stage in North America. Lack of
a sound stage this size in Toronto is the chief reason production
of blockbuster feature
films with budgets of more than $100 million, such as X-Men 2 and
3 and Superman 3, regularly bypass Toronto for other North American
and European cities.
When completed, FILMPORT will annually generate more than $600
million worth of economic activity in Ontario, support up to 2,000
person-years of employment and contribute approximately $4.3 million
in property taxes to the city.
In later phases of building for FILMPORT, the complex will expand
to 550,000 square feet of production space with more than a dozen
sound stages. Development outside the studio gates will include
up to 1 million square feet of offices, restaurants, conference
facilities and possibly a hotel, as well as additional industrial
and commercial space for related industries. The total development
cost is estimated at $275 million.
Toronto Film Studios Inc. is Canada's largest film studio operator,
currently managing 360,000 sq. ft. of facilities in the Port Lands
and South Riverdale area. TFS has hosted many of the city's largest
film productions,
including David Cronenberg's A History of Violence and Ron Howard's
Cinderella Man.
For further information: Rhoda Eisenstadt, Beth Merrick, The
Communications Group Inc., (416) 696-9900, reisenstadt@tcgpr.com,
bmerrick@tcgpr.com, dglassman@tcgpr.com;
Ken Ferguson, Toronto Film
Studios, (416) 406-1235, Ken@tfstudios.ca
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