Cinespace Film Studios has purchased 30 acres of industrial land in suburban Toronto for a planned film studio complex.

Cinespace president Steve Mirkopoulos said the Toronto studio operator on Tuesday completed the purchase of land at 777 Kipling Avenue in Etobicoke and has plans to redevelop the site.

‘With the province’s recently enhanced tax credit, Ontario is now one of the most competitive and stable film jurisdictions globally, so the timing of this project for both our company and our industry could not be better,’ Mirkopoulos said in a statement.

Local and foreign producers will have immediate access to production office suites, followed by planned studio space in early 2010.

Jim Mirkopoulos, vice-president of facility management for Cinespace, declined to detail development plans for the 777 Kipling site, except to say the studio operator will build a number of stages for use by film and TV producers.

He tells Playback Daily the Kipling Avenue purchase ends a long search for additional studio space in Toronto, and the completed facility will represent ‘our largest facility in terms of the number of stages and number of offices.’

Cinespace already rents out soundstages and production offices on Booth and Carlaw Avenues in downtown Toronto, and maintains standing White House Oval Office and Great Hall sets at Kleinburg Studios north of the city.

The studio operator will now expand into an existing film and TV production enclave in Etobicoke, near to Pearson Airport. Film lighting and equipment supplier William F. White maintains its headquarters on nearby Islington Avenue, Dufferin Gate Productions has soundstages on Butterick Road and post-production house Deluxe Laboratories is also nearby.

Pinewood Toronto Studios chairman Paul Bronfman welcomed the Cinespace expansion into Etobicoke.

‘It will be great. On behalf of Pinewood, we welcome additional capital into this business. I don’t view it as competition at all,’ Bronfman said.

William F. White is also readying a new 17-acre complex at the corner of Islington and Evans Avenues in Etobicoke slated to open early in 2010.

As with Pinewood Toronto, producers are expected to have access to rental equipment from both William F. White and PS Production Services at the new Cinespace facility in Etobicoke.

The Toronto expansion also comes as Cinespace chairman Nick Mirkopoulos continues to pursue the purchase of a 48-acre site in Chicago for a proposed film studio complex in that city.