Windsor City Council approves tax break for 12,500 sq. ft. manufacturing plant addition

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Ontario Construction News staff writer

Windsor City council has approved a tax break for Flex N Gate to build a 12,500 sq. ft. manufacturing plant addition.

The city will waive $563,000 in municipal property taxes for the expanded building on Ellis Street East for the next decade through a Business Retention and Expansion Grant.

Broadcaster CKLW Radio reports the additional space will make room for new equipment so it can renovate the existing structure to create a cafeteria and new locker rooms

Ward 3 Councillor Rino Bortolin says the new jobs created are far more valuable than the tax revenue.

“In the grand scheme of things it’s not actually that much. It’s a lot more important to look at the job creation that we’re seeing here,” he was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. “Over 100 jobs in an industrial corridor in that area in the heart of the city is a really great investment for the community.”

Bortolin says the program has already had a few success stories.

“Right in that same area there was a turkey processing plant (Bellwood Poultry) that got approval last year that I believe is set to open now, it’s just a few blocks from where Flex N Gate is,” he says. “It’s really been a successful program that’s encouraged a lot of job creation and retention, which is also key.”

Bortolin says a minor tax break is a small price to pay to keep a company in Windsor for 10 more years.

“It’s not really the deciding factor for most of these places, but it is basically to make sure that they don’t move out to the suburbs or somewhere where they could potentially get cheaper land and build somewhere else,” he says.

Flex N Gate is an automotive manufacturing company with 57 facilities globally. The company also has a plant in Lakeshore and Tecumseh.

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