Pinewood Toronto Studios has secured a $34.5-million repayable loan from the Ontario government to attract big-budget film and TV projects to the mega-studio.

Pinewood’s immediate growth plans include building surrounding residential streetscapes that double as New York, Chicago and London, England for visiting location shoots.

The new studio financing comes from Infrastructure Ontario, a government agency that provides affordable loans to renew the province’s infrastructure.

The city of Toronto has a minority stake in Pinewood controlled by Build Toronto, a municipal real estate and development corporation.

“This repayable loan will benefit every Ontarian, as well as the film and TV industry throughout the city and province. The ripple effect to the broader Ontario economy will be enormous,” Pinewood Toronto Studios chairman Paul Bronfman said in a statement.

The improvement plans at Pinewood include building residential shooting streets for foreign location productions that mimic, for example, the Soho district in Manhattan or Charing Cross Road in London.

Besides continuing to attract high profile movies like recent credits Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and The Thing, Pinewood is also looking to build out surrounding property on Toronto’s portlands to accommodate commercial and retail businesses, and creative industries like commercial advertising, music, publishing and the arts.

The proposed 13.5 hectare development will complement Pinewood’s existing eight soundstages.