AEON Bayfront Studios

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New partner in Hamilton west harbour film hub project
TAS joins Aeon and Forge and Foster in plan to redevelop barren Barton-Tiffany lands

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Teviah Moro
The Hamilton Spectator
Fri., June 10, 2022

A plan to create a film studio hub on city-owned lands at Hamilton’s west harbour has added a cast member.

And another step toward a potential deal setting the stage for the megaproject will go before city council in early July.

TAS — a Toronto-based firm that focuses on mixed-use projects and commercial community hubs — is to lead the proposed redevelopment of the roughly 14 acres of barren land between the CN rail yard, Queen, Tiffany and Barton streets.

“Our story is one of a company who’s focused on delivering deep impact and using real estate as the tool and the platform that we engage around to do that,” Mazyar Mortazavi, president and CEO of TAS, told The Spectator.

“We see a great opportunity in the Barton-Tiffany lands.”

TAS is also working with the Hamilton Community Foundation on refurbishing the historic Coppley building downtown on York Boulevard.

Meanwhile, Aeon Studio Group, which already has a production studio on Queen near the city-owned parcels, is “thrilled” to have TAS aboard, partner Jeff Anders said.

The consortium, which aims to turn the properties into a mixed-use creative arts and residential district anchored by film and television production studios, also includes Forge and Foster, a local real-estate investment firm.

In 2019, Aeon agreed in principle to buy the land that the city bulldozed a decade earlier for a stadium that was ultimately built at the former Ivor Wynne site in the east end.

In doing so, the partners also committed to forming a team that could access “the capital to be able to execute a project of this scope and scale,” Anders said.

“We are very excited to take the next steps and get to the point where we can start developing those lands as quickly as possible.”

City staff expect to update council July 4 on the consortium’s efforts to satisfy the conditions of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to lead to a land sale.

“With that being said, we’re not at the end of the process right now. We’re right in the middle of the process,” said Chris Phillips, the city’s waterfront lead.

The partners have held public engagement sessions and submitted a master plan and business case, as required under the MOU.

There are also environmental hurdles, Phillips noted.

“All parties in this recognize that it is a brownfield. It does have a significant degree of contamination.”

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