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Lenser said:
Nor is it far from various film production facilities - 30 Booth Street, Revival on Eastern, and the biggest one of 'em all, Pinewood. There's also a studio on the south side of Lake Shore between Carlaw and Leslie that's dedicated almost exclusively to the production of television commercials. This area is going to be mixed use for quite some time - residential, commercial - and, yes, business.
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Do you think that this area might become an even bigger film district in the future? Is there industry optimism in this location?
 
It's a very beautiful development and i hope it will keep its current design.
The area need something modern like this.
 
Whood
Waterloo_Guy said:
Do you think that this area might become an even bigger film district in the future? Is there industry optimism in this location?
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Not sure. Pinewood is expanding... ultimately it's supposed to be double its original size, so that's good. Revival is going to be surrounded by new stuff, a mix of commercial and business.... whether it will survive in ten years is not something I'd care to bet on. Heward Street has small production facilities, and 30 Booth is still a going concern. The east end is well served by access to the DVP, Gardiner and Lake Shore. But Etobicoke, Mississauga and even Hamilton are offering competition these days. Even Sudbury, hours north, is doing very well lately. As a whole, the industry is doing great in Ontario. Whether the east end of Toronto can keep what it already has, in the face of aggressive and exciting new developments slated over the next 10-20 years, it's an open question. I hope so. It's a big employer for the GTA and the jobs are both skilled and well-paid. Lots of technicians of all sorts, and lots of ancillary businesses to support the industry... I'm hopeful, but there will be intense pressure for some facilities to relocate more to the GTA's periphery, just to keep costs down.
 
Yea honestly I can see more short term development local to the east end ; But longer term, when condos / more offices encroach I can imagine they'll move out further in the city ! At least the sets, vs production studios or what not.
 
Mind you, with regards to the Portlands: film production, cement plants, dusty marinas and abject brown fields all share the same massive chunk of land. The changes slated there are going to unfold over decades, not mere years. Sure, along a major axis like Cherry you'll see new stuff quicker. But the bulk of it is going to take some time to remediate. What to do, for example, with the Hearn? With what money? Lots of ideas, little concrete yet. And then there's the un-manicured, yet strangely artificial wonder that is the spit. A birder's paradise, and a fantastic place within the city that feels utterly non-urban, offering a gracious respite from motorized vehicles of all sorts. Bladers, bikers and pedestrians alike can get out there and enjoy the relative silence. A pretty amazing Toronto secret, the spit.

I think we'll certainly see accelerated change from the Lake Shore and north of that. Eastern itself is poised for a dramatic renewal. But a block or two to the south? It's a different beast altogether. Comissioner and Unwin are unfamiliar territory to most Torontonians - and for the time being, I'm fine with that.
 
film production companies are planning to remain a large part of the Portlands for decades to come.

it's not hard to underestimate both the sheer amount of land available in the Portlands, and the amount of it that is either sitting as vacant or severely underutilized.
 
I like that part of the existing factory building is going to be preserved. A good thing too, it's fairly attractive and should give some grounding to the site.

I think that in terms of film production, there's plenty of opportunities to coexist- there's no reason why you can't have larger sound stages and redevelop other parcels with offices catering to sfx/digital servicesback-end services (and maybe even the odd residential on top).

The only question would be in terms of retaining the larger stages. I think that Cinespace usually repurposes existing structures for their stages and they were apparently short on space- I wonder how and where they might be looking to regain the lost space.
 
Community meeting regarding this on November 2nd at Bruce PS (51 Larchmount) starting at 6:30pm with an Open House
 
New docs posted on March 8, including a render I haven't seen before:
upload_2018-3-22_17-5-40.png
 

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