Municipal officials in Kenora have high hopes for the redevelopment of the former Abitibi mill site and a nearby package of brownfield properties.
Winnipeg developer Marcel Chartier of C.B. Richard Ellis owns the 400 acres consisting of waterfront property, slated for a mixed-used residential development, and the former paper mill, which is being set aside for light manufacturing opportunities.
The new anchor tenant on the old mill site is Wincrief Homes, a modular homebuilder, which is set to launch a pole peeling operation this summer.
Tannis Romaniuk, Wincrief's executive operations manager, is targeting July 1 to start operations, pending an electrical connection by the city.
It will create about 10 jobs. Trans Canada Utility Pole of Innisfil is acting as its broker.
Plant production is pegged at 15,000 red pine and jack pine poles a year, ranging in lengths between 30 and 65 feet.
Last year, the province awarded 17,000 cubic metres of Crown wood to Wincrief through the competitive wood supply process.
Romaniuk said its modular home business has been a challenge since the plant began operations a year and a half ago with only 29 homes to build.
“We're still an up-and-coming company with lots of growing pains because we're constantly adding as we get going.
We're looking forward to an exciting and prosperous future.” The home construction company is a spinoff of Wincrief Forest Products, and is a joint venture partnership between Moncrief Construction and the local Wabaseemoong Independent Nation.
The overall vision for the mill property is to create a value-added forestry cluster.
The Abitibi site industrial park is one of the economic engines being primed by the Lake of the Woods Development Commission, along with a new industrial park on Jones Road and potential lot development at the airport.
As part of a business attraction exercise, the commission is compiling community profile information to target specific sectors and businesses in southeastern Manitoba.
Jennifer Findlay, the city's economic development officer, said value-added forestry remains very much on the city's radar as well as building on its burgeoning tourism sector centred around the Lake of the Woods.
The municipality's tourism division has outdoor tourism promotional campaigns stretching as far west as Calgary, playing up Kenora as a North American boating destination with 14,222 islands and its sustainable living.
“We’re stewards of the life, living the lake life, and with our festivals, events and culture, we will celebrate our rich history, ” sid Findlay.
Kenora has 300 residential lots expected to come onstream in the next three years, including the large development by Chartier on the former Abitibi lands at Cameron Bay.
“We're getting a lot of early active retirees from Winnipeg,” she said, mainly in the 50-plus demographic, along with plenty of former residents who are returning with young families.
“People say we’re no longer a resourcebased economy, but the reality is we are about rocks and trees and water. We’re seeing a growth in tour operators and opportunities to get out on the lake,” including two kayak businesses and expanded specialty cruises with the Kenora tour boat.
Last year's opening of the Lake of the Woods Discovery Centre is drawing in tourists, and the erection of a waterfront pavilion has brought 14 new events to town as arts and culture is becoming a growing economic asset.
“When people say I was just in Stratford or Nelson, B.C. those are the kinds of communities we’re modelling ourselves after,” said Findlay.
“We have a historic downtown that we've fixed up. We don't have an anchor like a Shakespeare Festival but we have lots of events, and an explosion of arts and culture in the community.”
The completion of a two-phase downtown and waterfront revitalization is already having the desired effect. Four new restaurants have opened in the downtown core in recent months.
“Downtown revitalization works,” said Findlay. A third phase is in the works. “It'll be a continuation of the work we did on Main Street and the harbourfront.”
Now at the design phase, the municipality has sent applications in for government funding and a design firm has been selected to start in August.
But until an engineering consulting firm is hired, there are no immediate construction plans since no funding is secured.
The earliest the project would break ground is next spring should funding be secured, said municipal engineer Marco Vogrig in an email.
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