Film commissioner says new studio in Ottawa ‘is going to happen’ – but on a smaller scale

David Sali

December 11, 2024

Already an Insider? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become an Insider

Ottawa’s film commissioner says plans for a studio with multiple sound stages in the city’s west end are still in the works, but the project is being downsized in the wake of slowing Hollywood movie and TV production. Sandrine Pechels de Saint Sardos says numerous firms have expressed interest in building an indoor movie production facility on a 22-acre plot of land on Woodroffe Avenue that was formerly the site of the Greenbelt Research Farm. The film office, which is leasing the property from the National Capital Commission, put out a call for expressions of interest from potential partners last spring. It marked the latest step in a years-long campaign to bring a purpose-built, full-service film production hub to the nation’s capital. Pechels de Saint Sardos says such a facility would generate between $40 million and $100 million in annual economic spinoffs. She says the film office has a shortlist of partners that it could potentially work with and is set to write an updated business plan and launch a new feasibility study for the project in early 2025. “We don’t want to have (the project) fail,” she says. “Yes, it’s going slow. But frankly, when you look at history, it’s better to go slow and steady. We’re doing due diligence. We’re being transparent with the whole process. We want to make sure that (the project's) foundation is strong so that we are not going to fail this time.” An indoor production facility has been on local film producers’ wish lists for decades but has never come to fruition. In 2018, Toronto-based TriBro Studios floated a plan to construct four state-of-the-art sound stages at the Woodroffe Avenue site. The proposal included a “creative hub” that would feature 25,000 square feet of workshop space and 50,000 square feet of production facilities and co-working space for film, television and animation studios. Ottawa council approved a $40-million loan to TriBro two years later, but the project ultimately fell through. When Pechels de Saint Sardos was named Ottawa’s new film commissioner in the spring of 2022, she said building an indoor production space was one of her office’s top priorities. More than two years later, she says she remains committed to seeing the project through. “It’s going to happen. We have great partners. I’m very happy that the NCC got us that lease, that the City of Ottawa is fully supporting us and (Ontario minister of tourism, culture and gaming Stan Cho) is supporting us as well. Whenever there are a lot of parties (involved), it takes time and effort.” In a news release last spring, the film office laid out a vision calling for a 60,000- to 80,000-square-foot facility that would house three separate 20,000-square-foot sound stages, with the goal of making Ottawa a “full-service production haven for the film and television industry.”

'Smaller is better'

But the office is rethinking the project’s scope. Pechels de Saint Sardos notes that the Hollywood film and TV industry has been slow to recover from a series of labour disputes that halted many productions in 2023, and she says she now believes a smaller studio with two or three sound stages totalling closer to 40,000 square feet would be more feasible. “I think smaller is better,” she says. “We can always add (to it) afterward. It’s better to have the space be busy eight months out of 12 than to have an enormous, but empty, studio. I’ve seen some empty studios in Toronto, and I don’t want that. I want it to be always busy.” The nation’s capital has become a popular location for producers of Christmas-themed movies, with 11 such shoots in 2024. One of the most popular titles on Netflix’s current holiday roster, Hot Frosty, was filmed in Ottawa earlier this year. Meanwhile, the city is also attracting bigger productions, such as the 10-part limited series Geek Girl, which premiered in May, and Vicious, an upcoming horror movie starring Dakota Fanning that had a $18-million budget and was shot in Ottawa last spring. But even Christmas movies are usually filmed before the snow flies for real, Pechels de Saint Sardos points out, because Hollywood producers don’t want to be here in the middle of winter. She says an indoor studio would open the door to new opportunities for Ottawa’s film and TV production industry and the 600 crew members who work for it. “We’re losing major revenues in December, January, February, because it’s either too much snow or too cold,” she says. “It’s too hard for the crew to work (outside) with that kind of (weather).” Ottawa’s push for an indoor production facility comes as Kingston entrepreneur Jason Joly recently announced plans to build a $20-million film studio in that city. According to a recent Global News report, the project's financial backers include members of The Tragically Hip. But Pechels de Saint Sardos says she’s not worried that a studio in Kingston would steal business from another production hub a couple of hours down the road. “Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. We are very different,” she says, adding the National Capital Region has a “stronger base” of crew members than Kingston. With the Ottawa Film Office poised to hire a new employee in January who will focus on strategic planning, Pechels de Saint Sardos believes the local industry’s future is bright. She attended a global conference of film commissioners in Los Angeles in August, where executives from major Hollywood production companies raved about Ottawa as a filming location, she says. Such feedback gives her confidence that a local studio would succeed. “We have big players and we also have quality players coming,” Pechels de Saint Sardos says. “It’s great to have the big streamers, but frankly I also want to have local producers growing even more. We have the talent, and we have the crew. I want to help them and give them the tools to shine even more.”