This article was written by Megan Stacey, Journalist at the London Free Press and originally appears in the LFP on July 9, 2020.
Five industrial parks and about 100 hectares (250 acres) left to sell. Parcels of shovel-ready industrial land are a key factor in London’s economic potential, part of a strategy to help land new businesses and jobs. A report detailing the status of city-owned industrial land goes to politicians next week.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
About one-third of all employment in London happens on industrial land (private or city-owned). More than 6,800 jobs have been created through the sale of city-owned industrial land since the early 2000s, with another 5,000 estimated in spinoff jobs, such as construction and through manufacturing supply chains. That’s the potential of London’s industrial parks, which are near Highway 401 or Veterans Memorial Parkway and already home to food giants, like Dr. Oetker pizza, automotive suppliers and hundreds of other manufacturers.
FIVE PARKS. TWO FULL
Two city-owned industrial parks, Cuddy Boulevard and River Road, are already full, with no parcels of land left to sell. Innovation Park, which borders Veterans Memorial Parkway south of Hamilton Road, has about 35 per cent of its developable land still available. Skyway Industrial Park, east of Veterans and north of Oxford Street, has just 3.6 per cent of its property still available. Forest City Industrial Park, on Wilton Grove Road in south London, has just 2.4 per cent left to sell.
TWO DECADES, BY THE NUMBERS
Since city hall endorsed an industrial land strategy in 2001, about 270 hectares (600 acres) have been sold for more than $34 million. In those 20 years, companies building on industrial lands have paid more than $9.5 million in property taxes. The biggest year for city-owned industrial land was in 2017, when Maple Leaf Foods bought more than 40 hectares (100 acres) for the processing plant it plans to build in London. The worst year so far was, 2013, when no land in city-owned industrial parks was sold.
THE PLAN
London Economic Development Corp. (LEDC) created videos with drone footage of the city-owned land to better promote those industrial parks, a strategy that’s proven very helpful amid the coronavirus pandemic with most travel impossible, city staff said in the recent report. The price of land in those parks has remain unchanged since late 2018, between $70,000 and $80,000 per acre.
WHAT’S NEXT
A future industrial park is planned near Huron Street and Veterans Memorial Parkway. Once the parkway extension — an $11.2-million project that includes upgrades to Huron — is complete, a stormwater treatment plant will get the lands serviced and ready for development. Up to 65 acres (26 hectares) may be available as early as 2021. “Soft marketing” of the land has already begun. City politicians and business leaders have also stressed the need for better public transit to serve industrial areas in London. That was planned for the coming years, before COVID-19 and its financial pressures wiped out London Transit Commission’s growth plans. Because of the pandemic’s financial consequences, it’s unclear when better industrial bus service will be back on the table.
