HALIFAX — Electropolis is being vacated, and Halifax Film is moving out. But the landlords say the former power plant may still be available as studio space for the Nova Scotia film industry.

The 10-year lease held by Halifax Film with Nova Scotia Power expires at the end of November, and talks to renegotiate broke down in September. The impasse was reportedly over a 500% rent increase plus new demands from NSP.

Halifax Film is in the process of moving its children’s animation productions out of the converted power station, which is one of only two working soundstages in the province.

‘The renewal was astronomically different than the current arrangement. The end result is that we have to move,’ says Renee Pye, director of communication at Halifax Film. ‘The thing with stop-motion and CG animation, which is what we have housed in that building now, [is] it’s all been fitted into that building. The reality for that animation is we don’t have to have a large sound studio. [Moving is] the immediate concern, because they’re all in production.’

In September, NDP economic development critic Howard Epstein wrote a letter to the province, urging Premier Rodney MacDonald’s government to step in and keep Electropolis as a film studio. ‘You have to remember that facility was built with $1 million of provincial and federal money,’ said Epstein. ‘The government has to make sure that this investment is not lost.’ The province indicated it would not get involved in the rental dispute.

Despite rumors that Electropolis may be returned to energy production as a natural gas power plant, NSP spokesperson Margaret Murphy would only confirm there are many short- and long-term possibilities for the building, including office space. ‘One does include leasing it out to other tenants in the film community,’ she says.

Halifax Film employs 175 producers, animators, texture artists, puppeteers and other crew, housed at Electropolis. Internationally successful productions such as Poko and Lunar Jim are produced in that space, as well as the newer productions Bo on the GO!, The Mighty Jungle and Animal Mechanicals. Halifax Film has yet to secure a new studio space for its productions.