The mayor of Toronto donned a hardhat and tightened the bolts on a girder at Filmport on Aug. 8 – a small step towards completing the forthcoming megastudio he and the local industry hope will restore the city as the country’s top production center.

‘Toronto’s film industry faces a number of challenges – the high dollar, federal and provincial policies that deliberately subsidize filming outside Toronto but not in Toronto – but one of our big gaps was a major studio complex like this,’ David Miller told reporters. ‘When this is complete, it’s going to be very, very important for Toronto.’

The mayor was joined at the waterfront construction site by Ken Ferguson, head of both Toronto Film Studios and Filmport; Jeff Steiner, head of the Toronto Economic Development Corporation, which owns the land; and the project’s investors to unveil plans for an elaborate office building that represents the next phase of the complex. Two edifices that will house soundstage and production office space are already underway.

The office building is designed by British architect Will Alsop and Toronto’s Quadrangle Architects. Alsop is best known in these parts as the designer of the wildly unconventional Ontario College of Art and Design building, while Quadrangle conceived Toronto’s CHUM-City Building.

The new creation is just as distinct. One side is curved and red, to be constructed out of the same steel used for ships, to go with the ‘port lands’ theme; the other is all glass, with a huge lobby shaped like a Slinky that juts out from the main structure.

According to Filmport officials, the building will house commercial offices, post-production facilities, union and guild offices, film schools, restaurants and shops. It is projected to open in 2010. As for the two buildings currently under construction, production office space is expected to be ready later this year, and soundstages by March 2008.

‘Filmport itself is a community,’ Ferguson told the crowd. ‘Phase one will bring development.’

Filmport says it has already received numerous inquiries from producers, and there are already holds on office and soundstage space. The studio brass plans to lure the international movie biz crowd down for a peek during the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

In addition to TFS, investors in Filmport include merchant bank The Rose Corporation and service company conglomerate Comweb Corporation. GE Real Estate recently announced a $28.5-million ‘construction-to-permanent’ loan for the project’s first phase.