Vancouver: Yet another film studio complex is being shopped around in Vancouver, but this time the developer says it’s ready to be greenlit as soon as a joint venture partner is secured.

Stuart Kinnear of Vancouver’s Spectre Entertainment says he has packaged a studio proposal on lands near the bus and train terminal at Main and Terminal. He says all the environment and geotechnical surveys have been completed and the land is already zoned to allow for a studio complex.

(His project is not to be confused with the nearby, but now-expired, studio complex proposal by Trillium Corp. for Vancouver’s False Creek Flats area.)

Kinnear’s $27-million proposal is earmarked for an 11-acre parcel located south from the Pacific Station bus and train depot.

The so-called Terminal City Studios will include four 15,000-square-foot stages, four 10,000-square-foot stages and the largest effects stage in the world at 52,650 square feet. There will be a five-story office building, a miniplex of theaters – including three 25-seat spaces, one 100-seat space and one 200-seat space – that will be used for viewing rushes.

The complex is to include 75,000 square feet of photo labs, three 14,000-square-foot workshops and a 20,000-square-foot equipment production space.

Kinnear says that with a satellite company that is already located on the land, the Terminal City Studios will be the first studio complex with satellite uplinks in Canada. He says the complex will be entirely digital.

Convincing investors to ante up is a challenge, he admits, in light of the recent spate of projects that have been promised but not delivered.

‘There are a lot of talkers in the city,’ says Kinnear, who has for five months been low profile. ‘Realtors and developers are getting tired of movie people. But we have nine real stages and 20 television series. There is no available space on real stages until 2002. It’s insane.’

Financing a project like a film studio is considered high risk. Kinnear says he wants long-term tenants to ensure steady cash flow and would consider the same strategy that built the Stargate set at The Bridge Studios. There, mgm paid up front for the right to use the facility for five years.

The Terminal City project was moving ahead with partner Nomadic Entertainment of Calgary, but that deal has recently fallen through for undisclosed reasons.

Kinnear says he is meeting with pension fund companies, venture capitalists and developers and has considered going public to raise the money needed to complete the complex. The vendors of the land have also agreed to finance the project, says Kinnear.