The Chicago film industry is buzzing with the news that Cinespace, the Toronto film studio that has hosted productions such as the X-Men series, the Saw series, Goodwill Hunting and, yes, Chicago, is opening up a facility just west of the Loop. The space, to be built on the 1.3 million square foot facility that currently houses Ryerson Steel, will be the largest film production studio in the country outside of Hollywood.

Indeed, the Chicago facility, if completed, will be larger than Cinespace’s three studios in Canada.

But, says Nick Mirkopoulos, one of Cinespace’s founders who is brokering this deal, the facility will not be owned by his company. Cinespace will simply be managing the facility, which will be owned by local investors.

In fact, says Mirkopoulos, the contract hasn’t even been finalized for the Ryerson property, though he is confident that it will be. “We have an understanding and we have an agreement on certain things.”

Mirkopoulos would not say who the local investors are, just that they, like Cinespace, are going to be a family business. Corporate filing records from the Illinois Secretary of State indicate that the management for Chicago Film Studios Holdings, LLC, is Nick Pissios. According to the Chicago Film Office, Alex Pissios is acting as the Chicago rep for the deal. E-mails to Alex regarding’ his and Nick’s involvement were not returned as of deadline. But Nick’s Facebook friends include a number or Mirkopoulos’, indicating a deeper connection between the two families.

Nick Mirkopoulos wouldn’t say whether he, his brothers or his nephews—who are currently running Cinespace in Toronto—are personally investors in the Chicago deal. He stressed only that Cinespace was not the owner.

“We are managing the business, the investors are from Chicago, it’s an American project and we are going to have the management for five years,” Mirkopoulos said.

Where the money is coming from to build and manage the property is unclear. Chicago Film Studios was just given a $5 million grant from the Build Illinois Bond Fund from the state legislature. But the entire project—with some five to seven studios and office space when it is complete—is estimated to cost nearly $80 million, and Markopoulos indicated that the private investors were not paying for all of that. In fact, Mirkopoulos said he wasn’t even sure of the $5 million.

“It’s a promise,” Mirkopoulos said, “but these grants have attachments.”

And, he said, pointing out that Toronto pays 100 percent of building and property expenses and then leases the property to the company, 5 percent is not going to be enough.

“When one is subsidized 100 percent, you can’t play on the same playing field,” Mirkopoulos said, adding that “we will work with [the city and state] to make it the same playing field.”

Pressed further Mirkopoulos said, “Maybe it’s going to be 40-50 percent of the investors’ money and the rest is going to come from grants.” That, though, is going to be “three to four times more for the investors than any other jurisdiction” outside the United States.

But money issues don’t seem to be stopping the project. Cinespace has announced that a 300,000 square foot warehouse and some office space will be converted and ready for production by January. Mirkopoulos, who is from Greece, shrugs off any possibility of permitting issues with the city, saying, “We can get a very easy permit because we are using existing structure,” though he did say some soundproofing might be necessary.

In addition, part of the property includes and intersection, so companies can shoot street scenes. According to sources, Chicago Film Studios will buy other buildings as they go along, and Ryerson will keep a small presence on the property for at least five years.

Markopoulos says that since news of the project was broken by Reel Chicago on Wednesday, he has had 15-20 e-mails from producers in Los Angeles interested in when the studio will be done.

“It’s very positive,” he says. “We are going to go out and get the business, like we did in Toronto.”

Helping get the business are the Teamsters who, according to Reel Chicago, are bending over backwards to make film production affordable in Chicago with Chicago Film Studios.

“The unions are very flexible and have liberal work rules, which makes Chicago very user friendly,” said John Coli, Sr., secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 727 and president of Teamsters Joint Council 25.

With the help from the unions, Mirkopoulos points out, Chicago can take advantage of something Toronto doesn’t have: the kind of loyalty former Chicagoans have to their city.

“The Chicago boys [in L.A.], they say, ‘When are you opening so we can go back home?’”