Yesterday afternoon, the Toronto International Film Festival Group officially broke ground for the construction of the much-ballyhoo'd Bell Festival Centre at the corner of King & John in downtown Toronto. But rather than gathering at the actual site, a former parking lot (or is that former 19th century Irish plague hospital?), the upper strata of Ontario's political, corporate and film making elites gathered in a palatial ballroom of the Royal York Hotel to celebrate.

And oh the snacks : Miniature hamburgers, hoisin pork skewers, chocolate statuary and sushi of all the colours of the rainbow kept the well-heeled crowd munching away throughout  a series of speeches from the likes of Ivan Reitman, Dalton McGuinty, and architect Bruce Kuwabara.

The new construction will essentially be divided into two sections. The Bell Festival Centre proper will be a five-storey complex containing five cinemas with over 1,300 seasts, galleries, studio space, a film reference library/archive as well as a happening eatery/night spot. Sitting astride this film-centric playground will be a 37-storey condo going by the name of the Festival Tower. The goal for this $100 million + project is to provide the now vast Toronto Film Festival with a permanent home and to sell condos to those who would like to have a great view of the paparazzi for 2 weeks every year!

The whole she-bang is scheduled to be completed by 2010, but if this project, however well-funded, has anything in common with other Toronto condo builds, we may have to wait a little bit longer before things are completed.