The new home of the Toronto International Film Festival has received a $22-million gift.The Bell Lightbox, a five-storey 150,000-square-foot podium building that contains five cinemas with more than 1,300 seats, two galleries, three learning studios, a reference library, archive and retail store, is set to open at King and John streets in late 2009.
The gift to the Toronto International Film Festival Group was courtesy of the King and John Festival Corporation, a joint venture between the Reitman family, which includes filmmaker Ivan Reitman and his sisters, and the Daniels Corporation.
At the northwest corner of King and John streets, atop the Bell Lightbox, will be a 41-storey condominium dubbed the Festival Tower.
Tom Dutton, senior vice-president of the Daniels Corporation, said the combination of the two buildings is what makes the project complete.
"We've always seen it as an entity. In a way you can't have one without the other. The condominiums and the market component support Bell Lightbox and Bell Lightbox supports the condominiums because we are able to give amazing value to our condominium purchasers," Dutton said.
The total value of gift will be properly assessed once the construction is complete.
Dutton said the donation was something his company had planned on all along.
"By taking a holistic approach to the entire development, we were able to include gifting from the very beginning," he said.
The gift is a reflection of funds raised by King and John Festival Corporation and is based on the cost of construction as well as management fees.
Dutton said the company's donation shines a positive light on the business community.
"I think our donation shows that if the private sector really works together in partnership with non-profit agencies and the public sector also coming to the table, wonderful things can happen and you can end up being be more successful by being generous," he said.
Construction began in February and is be projected to be completed by the end of 2009 or early 2010.
Visit www.belllightbox.ca for details.