Ontario Construction News staff writer
A 58-acre business park planned for a site near Guelph is expected to sell out within two years, consultants told a Centre Wellington council committee last week.
Brett Salmon, Centre Wellington managing director of planning and development, presented a report from McSweeney and Associates to the township’s economic development task force Thursday.
Salmon says demand for business/industrial land in the Wellington-Guelph-Kitchener-Waterloo area is outstripping demand.
“In the primary market area, there’s beginning to be signs of a very limited supply of business park or employment lands available,” he told the committee.
“So, McSweeney felt very strongly that the market potential for this land was strong just because other places are running out of land that they have available,” Salmon said. “and the land itself in some of the bigger centres is getting quite costly.
Land is selling in large centres around Wellington County, prices are ranging from $600,000 to $700,000 an acre.
“Land values are on the rise and smaller municipalities are much lower,” Salmon said. “but surrounding us, especially with access to the 401 . . . those places have land values getting up in the half-million dollar an acre range.”
As a result, Centre Wellington “is positioned to capture a significant portion of this large, growing, and pent-up demand by supplying appropriately sized and competitively priced serviced business park land, which will result in the completion of sales of available lands within two years of availability,” the report concluded.
“We’re well positioned with this business park to be able to market to people that are looking as the COVID recovery continues,” Salmon said, adding that low industrial vacancy rates are going to drive command along with growth in the manufacturing sector and institutional investment in the industrial sector.
“We’re all ready hearing from businesses in the larger municipalities like Guelph that if they need to grow they are being priced out and they are looking for a less costly alternative outside of the larger centres.”
The new business park is described as “somewhat upscale” compared to other industrial developments and will target manufacturers looking for facilities from 10,000 to 50,000 square feet. A new custom zoning should be developed to support the development of the business park to achieve municipal employment objectives while discouraging inappropriate uses.
Target industries include:
- Food and Beverage Manufacturing
- Dairy product manufacturing
- Equipment, Metalworking and Machinery Manufacturing including agricultural and construction machinery manufacturing, electrical equipment manufacturing, metal fabrication and metalworking machinery manufacturing
- Organic and Medical-Chemical Manufacturing
- Computer systems and
- Architectural, engineering and related services Information and Cultural Industries
Centre Wellington council will vote on the business park strategic plan July 26. The township hopes to begin servicing the business park site this fall with lot sales by early 2022.