Longtime Toronto commercial and long-form set design and building company, Handmade Sets, is expanding its new business – StudioWorks – to better serve the commercial and feature film industries.

Handmade owner Keith McCully is responding to the ‘challenge’ issued in the $118,000 study released in February by the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the Toronto Film and Television Office. The study suggests the need for new, high-end soundstages in Toronto.

To begin his project, McCully has already moved into a 20,000-square-foot soundstage, with 8000 square feet of production office space and 13,500 square feet of production support space, from which Handmade Sets continues to operate.

The StudioWorks plan calls for two more 15,000-square-foot studios and another 18,000-square-foot soundstage, supported by another 22,000 square feet of support space. The $10-million construction project will be financed through an international equity partnership. McCully’s partners have not been announced.

The prefabricated, state-of-the-art soundstages are currently secured by a $5-million bond. They are ready to be shipped to Toronto, as soon as zoning and permit issues allow.

‘These stages exist,’ McCully begins. ‘They’re in 50 containers in Texas. It’s a million-dollar discount to me. I can railroad the stuff right into Canada.’

The site, located on King Street East near the Don Valley, is attached to the current StudioWorks/Handmade Sets complex on Eastern Avenue. Plans call for a connection (under the Don Valley Parkway) between the existing 226 Eastern Avenue studio location and the King Street site. In fact, McCully hopes to erect the new soundstages facing east to allow for a Bayview Avenue address.

Adam Ostry, ceo of the ofdc, confirms the study does outline a ‘public-private partnership’ as the most economically viable solution. However, he says, ‘There’s been no policy decision as to whether there would be an appetite for the government to enter into some kind of partnership with the private sector.’

As for StudioWorks, Ostry reports, ‘They made it clear to me that their economic decisions to go ahead weren’t predicated on government money. Their more immediate issues are related to obtaining permits and stuff like that. And that’s the municipal level of government.’

Kyle Benham is the manager, central field office for the Economic Development division of the City of Toronto. ‘We essentially have a standing offer to work with any of the studio companies that wish to pursue development,’ he says. ‘[However], the city has no money to contribute to any of those projects. It’s essentially support and soft services.’

Benham sees the main issues affecting the site and the permits necessary to build upon it as, ‘soil remediation [clean-up] and flood plane’ issues. ‘And,’ Benham continues, ‘because of the size of the structures they’re looking at, they’ll also go through a development review process.’

Before StudioWorks embarks on dealing with the other permit issues, it awaits the results of the Fung Report on the proposed Olympic village that may be built in the same area. Roger Metivier, StudioWorks’ marketing director, hopes this will help offset some of the cost of an anti-flooding device.

According to Benham, there are other studio proposals coming in alongside the StudioWorks plan.

‘I’m not going to mention any names, but we probably have three or four active studio proposals before us currently – from very small to very large. And there may in fact be a market for more than one complex,’ Benham says.

The competition does not faze StudioWorks. Says Metivier: ‘We’re going ahead. Definitely. We have years of experience and we have our clients, so I’m confident.’

McCully says he sees his plans as a boon for the industry. ‘[With these studios] all the set builders are busier – not just me. It’s a win for Toronto, it’s a win for Ontario and it’s a win for Canada in general. If I can bring more production into Canada, problem? Not a problem.’

StudioWorks hopes to have the stages erected within six months, in the best case scenario.