#Pinewood Group Acquires Full Ownership of Toronto Mega-Studio

Pinewood Group, which runs Pinewood Studios in the U.K., has acquired full ownership of Pinewood Toronto Studios.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the UK-based group has purchased film and TV studio in Toronto that has its name on the marquee due to a sales and management deal with the facility’s former Canadian stakeholders that began in 2009.  

The deal follows majority owner Bell Media putting up for sale its majority stake in the marquee studio where the Star Trek: Discovery series and Guillermo del Toro shoot. The deal for full ownership of Pinewood Toronto Studios landing with the UK group also comes after long negotiations with the city of Toronto and Paul Bronfman, chairman and CEO of studio operator Comweb Corp. to follow suit and sell their minority stakes in the facility.

“We have worked with our partners for many years to create the city’s pre-eminent studio, and we’re now delighted to have bought it. We will continue to invest in the studio and the surrounding Port Lands to ensure Pinewood Toronto Studios remains the number one destination for both domestic and international productions. We intend to work closely with the city to support Toronto’s thriving film and TV industry and all those who work in it,” Paul Golding, chairman of Pinewood Group, said in a statement.

Buying into PInewood Toronto Studios also comes after the Pinewood Group sold its stake in Pinewood Atlanta to local partners in 2019. The British studio operator has long had designs on a Toronto studio. The strategy was to refer high-budget shoots to Toronto, or use a facility in the Canadian city to accommodate spillover work from its British operation.

In 2004, then Pinewood Studios Group and a Canadian real estate developer, CastlePoint Studio Partners, narrowly lost out to rival Toronto real estate developer Rose Corp. to build a mega-studio on the city’s waterfront, a development that eventually became FilmPort.

 In 2009, Pinewood took over management of Toronto’s struggling Filmport facility, with the city of Toronto joining other investors as minority stakeholders.

Now that Pinewood has finally acquired full ownership of a Toronto studio, the British group will be betting Hollywood will keep coming to Ontario for currency savings and generous tax incentives and filming on its newly-acquired stages after the Hollywood screenwriters strike is resolved.

 At Pinewood Toronto Studios, Netflix has a long term lease on four soundstages and adjacent offices for around 84,580 square feet of production space.

The facility has recently expanded to to 490,000 square feet of production space and 16 soundstages in all.