In a continuing crisis, the demand for studio facilities continues to outstrip capacity in b.c.

And the gold-rush-like fever brought about by the growing film business here has sparked a lot of studio proposals of late, with very few of them actually amounting to anything. For example, downtown Vancouver projects such as Terminal City Studios and a proposal for False Creek Flats have fallen through in the past 18 months.

And a developer in Surrey failed last year with one plan to build a studio atop a junk yard, only to resurface with a different project – Surrey Film Studios – that will have, at least, a water tank that will be home to the alligator movie Lake Placid this summer. The overall project calls for up to 10 studio spaces.

Among the more established studio operators, Vidatron Entertainment Group recently bought a second warehouse-style building in Vancouver to produce its new hour-long science-fiction series First Wave.

The huge A-Frame Studio in Delta, last year’s home to Disney’s The 13th Warrior (aka Eaters of the Dead) is nearing completion of its 114,000-square-expansion of the existing 64,000-square-foot facility.

Dennis Rudd, studio president with Meier Worldwide Intermedia Inc., says the facility is currently vacant due to construction, but should be running by September. He hopes to be building the office complex that will house production offices and other studio support space by the end of the year.

Meier Worldwide – through its subsidiary GG Studios – also operates warehouse-style space throughout the Lower Mainland. Baton’s series Cold Squad is filming in WC Studios, while Shavick Entertainment’s Addams Family series is in MC Studios. The Crow is in BB Studios and The Net is wrapping production soon on its first season at Burnaby Studios. Stargate operates satellite stages at Meier’s Lake City Studios.

Stargate’s main set is at the government-owned, Burnaby-based Bridge Studios, which is booked to capacity with mgm’s television product until 2000.

However, the feature-friendly, 40,000-square-foot effects stage is empty, the first time that stage has sat idle with no prospects in the immediate future. Susan Croome, the facility’s gm, attributes the rare downtime to the disruption to production schedules caused by the threatened sag strike in the u.s. earlier this year. ‘That threw everyone off their games,’ she says.

Rates at The Bridge, meanwhile, have increased about 5% over the year. The effects stage can be leased for $70,000 per month, while the smaller stages (were they not already booked by Stargate, Outer Limits, and Poltergeist) might be rented for $48,000.

A review of the studio economy in b.c. is currently underway by Vancouver accounting firm Ellis Foster, and when completed will likely help form the business case for The Bridge to expand its facilities. Croome says that preliminary plans call for satellite stages to be constructed on other properties.

And at Lions Gate Studios (formerly North Shore Studios), a final decision about how to expand that six-stage facility will be made in the next couple of months. Planned is a 17,000-square-foot stage that would be the largest on the lot.

gm Peter Leitch says parking is the dilemma since it will have to make way for the new stage.

‘We’re confident we can fill it [the new stage],’ says Leitch, referring to the market’s buoyancy. Rates at Lions Gate are up about 5% over the year with a weekly rate for a stage costing up to $10,500.

Currently, the series Strange World (formerly Strange Days) and Millennium, features Dudley Do Right and Pittsburgh and mow Max Q are booked into the stages, squeezing out Lions Gate’s new series Mercy Point,which has had to find stage space elsewhere in Vancouver.