Major film studio envisioned for Mill Bay
The Malahat Nation and a Victoria production company unveiled plans Friday to start a major film studio complex on the First Nation’s land at Mill Bay.
The 85-acre site could see as many as six sound stages of up to 36,000 square feet each and several production workshops, as well as a commercial complex with a hotel and other services that could feed and house movie crews.
Beverley Dondale, chief executive of Victoria-based Alpha Select Production Services, said sound stages would allow the south Island to attract Hollywood movies with $200-million range budgets.
She said the region is already in demand for outdoor location shooting, but major productions need sound stages for indoor sets and production facilities to complete films in a “one-stop shop that brings all the people and equipment together.”
Currently, the Island’s only sound stages are near Parksville, where Vancouver Island Film Studios has six sound stages that are usually booked years in advance.
At a news conference at Brentwood College on Friday, Dondale said construction of the $72-million initial phase, which includes two production offices, a film workshop, two double sound stages and a back lot, could begin in 2025. She said discussions are taking place with investors to finalize funding.
The overall studio complex plan would cost about $250 million over several years, said Dondale.
Future plans include a watertank feature, currently not available in any Canadian sound stage, but coveted by producers making movies that have anything to do with water.
Proponents have said the complex could create 1,500 jobs in the industry. The project would be built out in three phases “so we can build the infrastructure and the industry as we go along,” said Dondale.
Josh Handysides, chief administrative officer for the Malahat Nation, said as land partner in the project, the nation is starting work on major infrastructure this year, including water, wastewater, telecommunications, power and roads on the 85-acre site and nearby areas.
“We’ve done a lot behind the scenes to advance all the components needed for the project to move forward,” said Handysides, adding there is room to expand the studio complex area to 135 acres to support the film industry “on a wider scale.”
Maple Reinders Constructors Ltd., the company building the new Royal B.C. Museum Collections Building in Colwood, is developing the site for the Malahat.
Outgoing film commissioner Kathleen Gilbert said the South Vancouver Island Film Commission does a booming business in films, but it’s mostly contained to smaller productions because of the lack of sound stages.
She called sound stages “game-changers” that could take the region from films with budgets of $1 million to $10 million to those in the $20-million to $200-million range and higher.
Sound stages are massive open buildings with 12-metre ceilings where any kind of scene can be created. Greater Victoria has had to make due with old warehouses and, in the case of the $30-million Netflix production Maid, the empty Home Outfitters store in Tillicum Mall.
Handysides said the film-studio project would produce revenue from the studios, hotel and industrial park, while providing training and jobs.
“One of the big things that really sold us on the film industry is it isn’t just one employer, one type of job — it’s a whole ecosystem of entry-level and training jobs all the way up to professional jobs,” said Handysides. “We’re really building a town here. We want to have the employment, the housing and everything a thriving community needs to have.”