The City of Thunder Bay has received the first installment of funds to expand infrastructure at Innova Park.
Northern Ontario Heritage Fund has invested $1 million for the industrial park under its Infrastructure and Community Development Program to extend two roads.
The project money is earmarked for extending Premier Way to the Harbour Expressway and lengthening Innovation Drive to Golf Links Road. New infrastructure with storm and sanitary sewers and water mains will be added, creating 18 construction jobs.
Eileen Lacey, the City of Thunder Bay's realty services manager, said the total project, worth more than $2 million, will be further supplemented by money from the city. An application is also being prepared to send to FedNor.
Located six kilometres from the airport, the access improvements are expected to make Innova more attractive for big retailers to set up shop in the inner city.
Since the park's inception in 1997, Innova has sat largely vacant. The city has plans to attract technology research and development, medical, service-oriented and light industrial enterprises.
Buchanan Forest Products has an office there and an Environment Canada building was recently constructed there.
The big fish coming in is Toronto's First Gulf Developments which has a conditional agreement for the purchase and sale of 52 acres of business park land for a huge shopping centre. Their plans, revealed last year, call for three buildings of retail space with a combined square footage of 585,000 square feet.
But possibly due to the economic slowdown, Lacey said “they have yet to submit their planning application.”
The property is still zoned light industrial. To permit this commercial development, zoning changes and Official Plan amendments must be made.
Another developer, Millenium Acquisitions of Toronto, has plans for a commercial development on a smaller scale located at the corner of Golf Links Road and the Harbour Expressway. There is a total of 13 acres to be developed through a combination of private and industrial land.
That company has a similar purchase and sale agreement with the city worth $1.9 million.
Lacey said the city always wanted to have additional access roads into the business park to attract complimentary businesses.
If both projects go off, the city will have 30 acres remaining. Lacey said the city will continue marketing the property for mixed-use developments such as medical, research, commercial and industrial firms.
Thunder Bay Mayor Lynn Peterson said the investment helps to diversify the city's economy by “opening up Innova Park and making it more attractive for commercial developments.”
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