Major Indigenous-owned film production studio planned for Vancouver Island

Example of an active production inside a purpose-built soundstage. (Studio Babelsberg)

If all goes as planned, one of British Columbia’s largest film and television production studio campuses could be built in southern Vancouver Island.

And it would be a unique on-reserve project, as a partnership between the Malahat First Nation and Alpha Select Production Services.

Malahat Film Studio would take up 41 acres of a new 80-acre business park on the First Nation’s reserve in Mill Bay, which is located northwest of Greater Victoria and on the west side of Saanich Inlet.

Beverley Dondale, the CEO of Alpha Select, told Daily Hive Urbanized their partnership with the First Nation began in 2016.

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“Building on Indigenous land was the only way I could see that we could include Indigenous people. We are building on Malahat Nation reserve land, so it’s very exciting, and I love our partnership,” said Dondale, adding that they are in the process of finding funding partners who understand the importance of the First Nation owning a majority stake of the facility.

The Malahat First Nation is pursuing this project as an economic development and job-creation opportunity. Similarly, the First Nation has also partnered with Energy Plug Technologies to build a 100,000 sq ft gigafactory at the on-reserve business park for manufacturing and assembling battery storage products.

Site of Malahat Business Park. (Google Maps)

Artistic rendering of the battery manufacturing plant at Malahat Business Park. (Energy Plug Technologies/Malahat First Nation)

This business park is located on the Trans-Canada Highway and adjacent to BC Ferries’ Mill Bay Ferry Terminal.

It is estimated the film studio, upon buildout, could support over 1,000 local jobs.

Upon the full buildout of all three phases of the film studio, there could be a total building floor area of 431,000 sq ft, including seven purpose-built soundstage buildings — each spanning a floor area of 32,884 sq ft — that can each be internally divided into two or three smaller soundstages to provide productions with flexibility in how they can use the space. In total, there would be up to approximately 230,000 sq ft of soundstage space.

Other major supporting uses include 20,000 sq ft of standalone production office space and 145,000 sq ft of workshop space.

The first phase would develop the first 20 acres of the film studio campus with 122,000 sq ft of combined building floor area, including the first two soundstage buildings, a 36,224 sq ft workshop building, and all of the standalone production office spaces.

Preliminary site concept for Malahat Film Studio. Click on the image for an enlarged version. (Alpha Select Production Services)

Malahat Film Studio would be comparable in size to the campus facilities found in Metro Vancouver, such as Bridge Studios’ Boundary Road campus in Burnaby, which has 177,600 sq ft of soundstage space across 13 soundstages, with the largest soundstage volume reaching 18,000 sq ft.

Vancouver Film Studio, also located on Boundary Road in Vancouver, has 210,000 sq ft of soundstage space within 13 soundstages, with the largest being 21,000 sq ft.

Dondale says the timeline for building and opening the first phase depends on finalizing funding and completing site utilities and infrastructure, which is currently a work in progress.

But she says that based on her previous discussions with Hollywood studios in Los Angeles, there is a great deal of interest in filming on Vancouver Island and a lot of interest in the partnership with the First Nation. She would like to see $100 million productions at the campus.

“We want to have a series as that will be our bread and butter, and I personally want our studio to be the hub for Indigenous and domestic films,” she said.

Special effects during a film production at Martini Film Studios. (Matthew Harrington/Martini Film Studios)

Kathleen Gilbert, the film commissioner for Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission (Film Victoria), says she met with six different studios or streaming companies in Los Angeles in late 2023, and they all expressed a keen interest in sending more of their productions to BC and southern Vancouver Island. But without a purpose-built studio space, Vancouver Island is unable to attract productions for more than a few days.

“We continue to get requests from productions seeking sound stage space. We have managed to land several series over the last few years; however, we have had to squeeze them into warehouse space or closed retail stores because of our lack of a purpose-built studio,” Gilbert told Daily Hive Urbanized.

She says Film Victoria has been working for years to help catalyze purpose-built soundstage space in the Victoria area. There are currently three different production facility projects in the pipeline, and she is “anxious to see any one of them break ground on at least one soundstage.”

“We are excited about the prospect of a proper purpose-built studio on Vancouver Island,” said Gilbert when asked to comment on the future Malahat Film Studio.

Some of Vancouver Island’s most notable previous productions include limited series such as Fox’s Gracepoint and Netflix’s Maid, and Syfy series Reginald the Vampire. Each of these productions, she says, required a place to build their sets.

“I can confidently say that if we had had a studio, it would have been completely booked for the last three or four years,” continued Gilbert, who notes that Vancouver Island South is the busiest region for film and television productions in BC outside of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

“Without a studio, we are unable to land the big-budget shows.”

martini film studios 216 business park langley township rendering f

Artistic rendering of Martini Film Studios’ major new film and television production studio campus at 216 Business Park in Langley Township. (Martini Film Studios)

Bridge Studios Lake City 3131 Lake City Way Burnaby

Artistic rendering of Bridge Studios Lake City at 3131 Lake City Way, Burnaby. (CTA Architecture & Design/Bridge Studios)

bridge studios 3990 marine way burnaby film production

Artistic rendering of Bridge Studios’ new film and television production campus at 3990 Marine Way in South Burnaby. (CTA Architecture & Design/Bridge Studios)

Gilbert adds that Film Victoria’s jurisdiction currently sees production work for about 50 to 60 shows annually, which brings over $60 million in direct spending to the Capital Region.

According to Film Victoria’s latest annual report, in 2022, its jurisdiction saw 51 productions and delivered 14 script breakdowns. The number of projects has grown exponentially from 99 in 2015 to 866 in 2022.

Currently, Metro Vancouver is undergoing a building boom in new additional film and television production facility capacity, including the expansion of existing campuses and the construction of brand new campuses.

In Langley Township, Martini Film Studios has begun site preparation on their first purpose-built campus — a 33-acre facility with 16 soundstages totalling 370,000 sq ft.

Bridge Studios recently reached completion on a new campus in the Edmonds area of Burnaby, and it is also in the process of building a significantly sized campus next to SkyTrain Lake City Way Station, also in Burnaby. The Lake City campus is on 19 acres and features 21 soundstages spanning 340,000 sq ft.

In South Burnaby, there are plans by Bridge Studios to turn an 18.5-acre site into a campus with 16 soundstages totalling 316,000 sq ft.

Malahat Film Studio is not the only Indigenous-led film studio project in the pipeline, as the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations have partnered with Aquilini Development to build a 450,000 sq ft film studio on the southern parcel of the 40-acre Willingdon Lands redevelopment next to BCIT Burnaby.

According to the Vancouver Economic Commission, BC’s film and television production industry generated a new all-time record of $4.9 billion in local spending in 2022, including $3.4 billion directly from the film and television production sector and $1.4 billion from the animation and visual effects post-production sector.

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