The race to build Toronto’s next studio is down to four contenders, all of which made their final pitches to the Toronto Economic Development Corporation earlier this month, moving the city’s troubled Portlands project one step closer to completion.

The city has struggled to get its megastudio build off the ground and last year TEDCO, its redevelopment arm, went looking for new investors when its real estate partner, San Diego, CA-based Sequence Development Corporation, backed out of the $103-million effort, citing lack of tenancies and financing.

Four groups have been short-listed:

* Giffels Design-Build and Raleigh Enterprises

* Toronto Film Studios and The Rose Corporation

* The Comweb Group and O&Y Properties

* Pinewood-Shepperton Studios and Castlepoint Developments

TEDCO will recommend one group to its board this month and, if okayed, will go to city council for final approval, likely sometime in April or May, says CEO and president Jeffrey Steiner. He would not comment in detail on any of the proposals.

Comweb is also one-half of Great Lakes Studios, Toronto’s other megastudio, now under construction next door to the Portlands site. The builds were seen as rivals until both parties reached a compromise last summer, retooling Great Lakes as an FX space. A full-service site, Portlands hopes to lure big-budget shoots away from Australia, L.A. and the U.K.

U.K.-based Pinewood-Shepperton has been with the project since its earliest stages, and was expected to operate the facility upon completion, originally slated for 2005.