The film world has immortalized Britain’s Pinewood Shepperton Studios for its James Bond, Batman and Harry Potter film shoots.

But Toronto real estate developer Alfredo Romano is far better known at Toronto city hall, which ultimately decides which film studios get built in the city, and where.

In 2002, then-mayor Mel Lastman declared Pinewood Shepperton the winning bid to build a Toronto studio for blockbuster movie shoots.

But that plan fell apart for lack of financing, and Pinewood Shepperton returned in 2003 with a bid in yet another waterfront studio competition, this time with Romano’s Castlepoint Development as its local partner.

A year later, Castlepoint and Pinewood narrowly lost out to rival developer Rose Corp. for the right to build a megastudio on Toronto’s underused Port Lands, complete with a 99-year lease and a shield from studio competition on city-owned waterfront property.

At the time, Romano was said to be steamed over Mayor David Miller’s decision to go with Rose Corp., especially as the belief among some pundits was that Castlepoint’s 2004 bid was superior.

With time, and city hall awarding Castlepoint permission to build a giant 50-storey condominium complex atop Toronto’s Hummingbird Centre, Romano is showing no pique.

‘Let’s just say that it would be biased of me, and completely self-serving, to say we had the best bid,’ he says of the 2004 competition.