Niverville studio project stalls

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The creation of a widely publicized production studio village in Niverville has been stalled by financing and altered due to environmental concerns.

Nearly a year ago, local film production company Julijette Inc. announced its partnership with Volume Global, a Los Angeles-based virtual production firm.

The two were to funnel $30 million into Jette Studios, a production studio village with a pop-up soundstage. The stage model, which Volume Global made, was first seen at Lionsgate Studios Yonkers in New York.

At the time of the announcement, the companies expected to start building the 20,000-square-foot pop-up stage in June 2023 and end construction a few months later.

Shovels were to then hit the ground on a concrete, 40,000-sq.-ft. soundstage on the same lot.

The lot is still a field.

Juliette Hagopian, owner of Julijette Inc., told the Free Press at the end of 2023 the project was delayed; she was working on financing and hopeful for February 2024.

There are no updates yet.

Meantime, Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck gave a written statement, with support from Hagopian.

“Despite having to address challenging construction inflationary pressures and increased borrowing costs due to prime rate increases over the past year the studio project, while unfortunately delayed, continues to move forward,” Dyck wrote.

Construction could start sometime this year, he added. The project has “the unrelenting passion of Juliette.”

“Niverville continues to support Jette Studios in its efforts towards construction of a new studio campus development in our community,” wrote the mayor of the town of roughly 6,000, located some 25 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

Meantime, the production studio village plans have changed.

The pop-up studio model is no longer being used — it was deemed a concern related to its lack of energy efficiency, Gordon Daman, a consultant for the Town of Niverville, noted in an email Thursday.

Volume Global didn’t respond to interview requests by print deadline. However, it remains involved in the project, Daman said.

The company previously said it would split costs with Julijette Inc. around 50-50.

Elsewhere, Volume Global has inked a deal with White Owl Film Studios, an Indigenous-owned Ontario-based production company, to build a pop-up soundstage in Wahnapitae First Nation territory. The deal became public late last year.

Volume Global advertises the First Nation’s air-supported, 20,000-sq.-ft. soundstage as the first to be built in Canada.

In March 2023, the then-Progressive Conservative provincial government highlighted $40.6 million in infrastructure investments in and around Niverville, including the twinning of Provincial Road 311 west, as part of its five-year infrastructure investment strategy.

Dyck hailed the funding as an “investment in the much-needed infrastructure upgrades that will trigger this significant economic development project” in a news release. He was referring to Jette Studios.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure has since spent $625,000 on infrastructure improvements at PR 311 and Mulberry Avenue in Niverville, a spokesperson noted.

Further work on PR 311 hasn’t yet started.

The province recently met with the Town of Niverville to discuss a schedule for surface rehabilitation of a stretch of the road, from Krahn Road to Sixth Avenue, the spokesperson continued.

The project is expected to cost $2.05 million.

The province approved a permit for temporary access from PR 311 to the site of the proposed Niverville studio.

Hagopian purchased a 17,000-sq.-ft. studio in Winnipeg during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to produce films.

She sought a rural location for her next studio because of the province’s film tax credit.

Companies receive up to 65 per cent back on corporate income tax if they staff their sets with Manitobans. The credit includes a guaranteed five per cent for rural shoots.

Manitoba housed 87 film productions — with a total global production budget of $265.6 million — in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to Manitoba Film & Music’s latest annual report.

Thirty-five per cent of shooting days took place in rural areas.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com