If you live in Toronto and you love movies, the construction site at the King and John Streets is more than just an expanse of concrete and exposed reinforcing rods. True, there is a condo involved, but the main space that is slowly rising is the Bell Lightbox, the much-anticipated new home of the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

It’s clearly a dream come true for Noah Cowan, the inaugural artistic director of Lightbox, who led hard-hat tours during TIFF. Tagging along on the first tour was Ivan Reitman and his sisters, whose family has donated the space to TIFFG – and who will own a chunk of the condo tower that will be built above the five-floor podium as well as a piece of the action of the hospitality services.

The facility will have four cinemas – with 550, 350, 250, 150 seats, respectively – as well as a multipurpose room with, as Cowan calls it, ‘hose-off-ability’ to handle any hands-on child-oriented projects. Montreal’s Ex-Centris provided technological advice on the cinema construction and infrastructure.

Moving from ground floor to the third – that’s all there is for the moment – Cowan enthusiastically described the vision of architect Bruce Kuwabara. ‘Film is a public medium and therefore should be transparent.’

The Lightbox, he said, bridged the gap between the notion of transparency and the necessary dark and closed spaces of cinemas.

More than 5,000 square feet of gallery space will complement the films presented in the cinemas, while restaurants and lounges will, it is hoped, create a destination for those who live and work in the neighborhood.

One detail sure to gladden the hearts of female cinema-goers is the scale of the restrooms. The number of female toilets is well beyond code.

Still, there remain 49 million little problems: TIFFG’s fundraising target for the facility is $196 million. The group needs to raise a further $49 million. Asked if TIFFG had a deadline beyond the planned opening for the 2010 festival, Cowan smiled slyly. ‘We’ll keep fund-raising until we do.’