Herc Entertainment, Cinelease Board Toronto Film Studio Relaunch (Exclusive)
U.S. equipment rental giant Herc Entertainment Services and Cinelease have struck a strategic partnership with a rebranded Studio Toronto to offer lighting and equipment rentals and related services to the renovated 300,000 square foot film studio and its 10 soundstages.
The former Downsview Park Studios facility in north Toronto hosted TV shoots for the USA Network legal drama Suits and the Netflix series Designated Survivor, and in 2005 handled interior shoots for Cinderella Man by director Ron Howard on its stages.
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The studio complex has been recently renovated at a cost of $5 million and rebranded as Studio Toronto, with CEO Frank Sicoli telling THR that HBO and Netflix are among the major U.S. media players to rent out soundstages this summer to produce their originals.
“We are pleased to enter into this strategic partnership with Herc Entertainment and Cinelease. There is a shared unified vision and alliance all partners bring to the table with the common goal of making Toronto a global production hub,” Sicoli added. The Studio Toronto relaunch comes as Hollywood’s streaming war has sparked an escalating studio construction boom in and around Toronto.
The north Toronto facility is separate from Downsview Studios, a purpose-built film studio to be built by Hackman Capital, the U.S. property developer placing big bets on studio space in Los Angeles and elsewhere internationally amid the streaming boom, and business unit MBS Group.
The Downsview Studios complex will comprise an initial eight soundstages followed by converting airplane hangars into additional studio space at the adjacent Downsview airbase as part a wider 370 acre redevelopment project.
Herc Equipment Services and Cinelease are business units of Herc Rentals Inc. as they partner on the Studio Toronto relaunch. “Partnering with Studio Toronto provides a perfect opportunity for us to leverage the specialty equipment in our fleet,” Mark Lamberton, vp of Herc Entertainment Services, said in a statement.
