Vancouver: As part of b.c. Premier Glen Clark’s pre-election handouts, the provincial government-owned Bridge Studios in Burnaby will get a $5 million injection to expand its facilities by 42,000 square feet.

Announced April 29 at a press conference on the set of the series Poltergeist, the planned studio will include a new 25,000-square-foot stage, and 17,000 square feet of new office space and new service areas.

The Bridge Studios – which is a Crown corporation operated through the B.C. Pavilion Corporation and the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture – currently comprise 150,000 square feet of soundstages, effects studios and office space.

Destined for half of the five-acre vacant lot adjoining the existing complex, the planned studio is scheduled for completion in March 1997 with construction beginning as early as August.

The government will invest $1.5 million to clean up the soils of the industrial land. Construction costs of $3.5 million will be advanced based on a tenancy agreement with MGM Worldwide Television.

mgm will begin shooting a series called Stargate in the new Stage 5 next spring and has four one-year renewal options to make up its five-year commitment to the project, says Bridge Studios gm Susan Croome.

Stage 5 will be the largest sound-proof stage in Vancouver, she adds, and it will open the 40,000-square-foot effects stage to more feature work.

Croome says the direct economic benefit from the studio in its first year of operation will total $75 million, providing provincial taxes of $4 million. Rental revenue will be $400,000.

In his presentation, Clark said: ‘A partnership with MGM Worldwide Television has helped us launch a development that will bring new dollars, jobs and opportunities to British Columbians. The expansion means producers will be assured of plentiful, top-quality studio space when they come to b.c., thus maintaining the province’s position as one of North America’s leading film and television production centers.

‘We are desperately short of studio space, with the result that in 1995 alone we lost two $15 million feature productions, one from Columbia and the other from Universal,’ said Clark. He promised 400 new jobs through the construction of the facility and the resultant production.

When asked about the politically ripe timing of the announcement, Croome says, ‘This (expansion) was not a decision lightly taken. It’s market driven, not politically driven. Capacity is our number one issue now that the labor situation has been resolved.’

She adds: ‘There is a lot of risk in building stages, because you can’t guarantee the rentals.’

The Bridge Studios generated $980,000 in profits on revenues of $1.9 million in fiscal 1996. Profits a year earlier were $760,000. Stage 4 was opened in July 1995.