North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli uses his sixth floor "wardroom" perch at city hall to full advantage when meeting with development prospects.
After he's encouraged them to take the three-hour drive up Highway 11 from the Golden Horseshoe, there's a spectacular panoramic vista of blue northern water and a forested city to help seal the deal.
"It's so easy to sell North Bay when you're overlooking Lake Nipissing and the city and all you see is green," says Fedeli.
Magnificent views are far being the only drawing card for developers to the Gateway City these days.
Fedeli, the former marketing executive has been all about business since first being elected in 2003. He has made a weekly effort to get out and tour area businesses for ribbon-cuttings, expansions, or simply fact-finding trips. All of his daily excursions are posted on his Mayor's Office website.
"It's almost a love-in these days," says Fedeli of the warm and fuzzy feeling between city hall, developers and the community. He fielded a dozen phone calls during his monthly cable TV phone-in show in September, "and they were gushing."
The mayor insists he isn't just drinking his own 'Open for Business' Kool-Aid.
Don't believe him? Ask Italo Ferrari of MVD Properties Inc., the new owner of the North Bay Mall on Lakeshore Drive.
The Toronto developer, who picks up under-performing commercial properties, across Ontario, ranks North Bay among his top developer-friendly municipalities.
MVD Properties acquired the largely abandoned property three years ago and invested $10 million to reconfigure the 300,000-square-foot mall into a storefront outlet centred around its anchor Hart department store. More complimentary major label tenants have settled in, with a No Frills grocery set to open this fall.
Ferrari likes the stability of North Bay's blue collar economy and says the municipal decision-makers and bureaucrats are very open, accessible, and prioritize the approvals process. He especially likes being able to deal directly with a mayor who appreciates new business.
"The time element is crucial in getting a tenant, or losing it," says Ferrari. ''A phone call and Vic comes down and he brings the heads of the departments."
The mall's re-opening is part of the revival of the bustling Lakeshore Drive shopping district that held a dozen empty commercial buildings only a few years ago.
The City of North Bay has been steered by a pro-business, incentive-laden bunch in the last five years. They fearlessly axed industrial property taxes by 66 per cent and have switched over to the commercial side, intent on chopping it 25 per cent over 25 years.
A Development Application Review Team (DART) instituted to bring the department heads together, sometimes with private business involved, to meet development visitors and provide direct answers.
KPMG gave high markets to the city when they released their 2008 Competitive Alternatives guide to international business locations. North Bay scored well as an attractive place to locate in 17 categories including software design, manufacturing and aerospace.
It's the robust mining industry in Northern Ontario that been a big benefactor for the 60-plus local supply and service companies that cater to it.
Local manufacturers like Atlas Copco, Goodyear Canada and North Bay Machining Centre have moved into spacious new shops in the Ferris Industrial Park. Mining supplier Sandvik Mining and Construction opened a new 70,000-square foot shop to make core barrels and drill rods for its exploration division.
Highway bridge fabrication work forced Central Welding to build an addition onto its Seymour Street headquarters with another shop erected down the street.
On the commercial and retail side, there's been a slew of new buildings along the Highway 11/17 corridor in the north end, with a Canadian Tire expansion, a new Boston Pizza, Hampton Inn, Shoppers Drug Mart and the construction of One Kids Place, a children's treatment centre. In fact, just about every major car dealership in town has either built new showrooms.
The residential market continues to churn out housing starts at historic highs. The city posted the construction 95 single dwelling homes starts at the end of October, up 10 per cent from the 86 built last year.
Overall, North Bay surpassed $80,000 in the total value of city-issued building permits this fall, surpassing last year's then-historic record of $78.6 million.
Companies like Kenalex Construction, Laurentian Heights, Ferreira Homes, Rochon Homes, Milford Developments and Consolidated Homes are at work on subdivisions across the city.
Kenalex is proposing a 105-unit planned community of singles and townhouses called Highland Woods next to the North Bay Golf and Country Club.
"Next year will be another record-breaking year," Fedeli predicts, with Nipissing University and Canadore College teaming up on building a $50-million joint student centre and library.
Close by, the biggest construction project in the city's history, the $550 million North Bay Regional Health Centre rolls on toward completion in 2010.
Infrastructure-wise, the city is spending $34 million this year on sewer, water, roads and other capital projects, all of it paid through the assessment growth.
The two main entrances to the downtown, Algonquin Avenue and Fisher Street, received major face-lifts this year. Gone are the railway trestles on both streets which were widened to four lanes complete with cobble stone sidewalks.
Next year, the city plans to invest $41 million on infrastructure.
North Bay has its own version of the Big Dig downtown. Oak Street is being dressed up with new sidewalks, light standards, and landscaping. Nearby a $7 million pedestrian underpass is being built under the reclaimed former Canadian Pacific railway yards to connect the downtown with the waterfront green space and walking trails.
As part of the ongoing railway lands redevelopment plan, the historic passenger terminal is being converted into a museum called @Discovery North Bay.
One of North Bay's shining lights has been its award-winning Downtown Community Improvement Plan. The successful incentive plan to dress up storefront facades has been an inspiration to other Northern Ontario communities.
The program will wind up soon, but over its six year run, the city invested $1 million to support $7 million in private investment.
"The downtown program was a good leg-up," says Fedeli, "but it had to come to an end."
A brownfield community improvement plan succeeded in landing the Vrancor Group from Burlington, who are planning to build a $30-million waterfront hotel and conference centre on the former Kenroc drill bits factory site.
There's no timelines for construction until the soil is remediated, but the development will feature a Hilton Garden Inn. Under an incentive plan, the money Vrancor spends to clean up the site will eventually be returned to them in discounted property taxes.
Vrancor is not a stranger to the city as operators of a Holiday Inn Express, an upcoming Staybridge Suites Hotel and a Hilton Hampton Inn in the city's north end commercial district.
But it hasn't all been unchecked growth. In updating its Official Plan, the city is intent on striking a balance between encouraging new growth and sustaining quality of life. Fedeli says special emphasis is being placed on infilling existing vacant land wherever possible and protecting the city's escarpment from more residential home development.
