Development of Stageview Studios on track for late 2026 groundbreaking

A concept drawing for Stageview Studios in downtown Stratford.

As designs for a three-story, 33,000 square-foot film and television studio in the heart of downtown Stratford inch closer to being finalized, the people behind the ambitious project aimed at placing the Festival City at the centre of Canada’s content-production industry are hopeful shovels could hit the dirt as early as next year.

Shortly after announcing Stageview Studios’ main soundstage will be named in honour of the late Canadian actor, Graham Greene, Craig Thompson – the executive producer for Ballinran Entertainment, a local production company, and one of the driving forces behind the development of the film studio – said the project is well into its design phase, and shared design drawings for each of the building’s three floors.

“The next phase of architectural drawings has been completed, we are in talks with a developer and, a couple of weeks ago, we announced the main soundstage will be the Graham Greene Stage,” Thompson said. “Graham and I talked before he passed away; we were hoping to do an announcement with him in person, but sadly, he passed away unexpectedly, but he honoured his commitment through his wife.

“ … There’s one big soundstage … that’s going be about 5,000 square feet and then a smaller studio that’s going to be about 2,000 square feet. (The Graham Green Stage) is going to be for filming projects, recording plays, recording music; it’s a fully functional production soundstage for film and television, and immersive technology – so, motion capture and things like that. And it’s also going to be a training location because we’ve got a line for some training funding that we’ve applied for to do some training at the facility.”

The idea behind naming the studio’s main soundstage after Greene, Thompson explained, is multilayered. Beyond paying homage to an acclaimed and well-liked Indigenous-Canadian actor who performed with the Stratford Festival for one season in 2007 and has extensive ties to Hollywood, naming the soundstage after Greene is meant to inspire young creatives – especially those from communities and backgrounds that are often underrepresented in the film and television industry – to chase their storytelling ambitions.

“We want to give a voice to underrepresented people,” Thompson said. “Although Graham was very lucky and successful in his career, we want to use him as a figurehead to inspire people who may want to emulate his path and gain the confidence to tell their own stories.”

According to the design drawings completed by project architect Michael Wilson, Stageview Studios will be built up from the existing, 11,000 square-foot warehouse building on Downie Street, across from Stratford’s transit hub and beside the Bradshaw Lofts. The Graham Greene Stage will take up a large portion of that existing footprint, stretching up into a second floor to allow for lighting, sound and other filming equipment.

The second, smaller recording studio will inhabit the ground floor, and will be used primarily for audio recording, as well as some filming. The ground floor plans also include three loading bays for equipment – one at the back, one off Downie Street and one off Milton Street – a staging shop for visiting productions’ props and equipment, an equipment depot for productions looking to rent equipment, a green room for VIPs working in the studio, an administrative office, a reception area, an elevator and stairs to the second floor.

Designs for the second floor, which is smaller than the ground floor because of the two-story main soundstage, includes office space for rent to third-party businesses and organizations, dressing rooms, a board room and Ballinran Entertainment’s editing and post-production facilities. Once the project is complete, Thompson said he will move all Ballinran operations from its office just down the street to Stageview Studios.

For the top floor, designs include a large multi-purpose/conference room, rehearsal space and assembly hall that can be rented out to the wider community, as well as a gallery and outdoor covered terrace. Thompson said he is looking to partner with someone in the hospitality industry to turn the gallery and outdoor space into one where food and drink can be served and outdoor events can be hosted.

“It’s a big project and it’s going to require some heavy lifting, but we have a lot of people who are behind us and are allies, and it really is a project for the community because it’s bigger than anything I can do on my own,” Thompson said. “Countries around the world are investing in content infrastructure – studios, etc. One of the great things about Stratford is we have this concentration of talent here, not just in front of the camera like actors, but people behind the scenes – writers, designers, directors, technicians.

“We have this unique opportunity to diversify our creative economy by doing something that is an adjunct to the cultural industries that exist here already. And … we’re surrounded by education; we’ve got the University of Waterloo, we’ve got Fanshawe, we’ve got Conestoga. This is a perfect opportunity to train the next generation of creative people.”

With the completion of Stageview Studios anticipated in 2027, Thompson said he and his partners – including local business leader and musician Lee Helperin and civil engineer Nick Aroutzidis – are confident they will break ground on the project at some point in late 2026.