Duane Hicks
If you want a lot in the industrial park in the north end of town, you’d better act fast–there’s not too many left.
A look at an up-to-date map of the park shows six town-owned lots that are excavated, backfilled, serviceable, and ready for sale and four others that are serviceable but not excavated or backfilled.
“We’ve had a number of lot sales and certainly there’s interest in the industrial park,” local economic development consultant Tannis Drysdale told the Times.
“I do know we’re closing in on the very last of our one-acre/half-acre, fully excavated and shovel-ready lots on Sixth Street,” she noted.
“We have a couple left there but those are a hot commodity.
The most recent lot sale was to Tbaytel, which will be building a permanent office on the north side of Sixth Street West, right across from the recycling drop-off depot.
Drysdale said there’s also been some interest expressed in the lots along Fifth Street West, adjacent to the CN tracks.
“I would think [those lots] will become of interest to an entrepreneur as the [New Gold] mine gets up and going,” she noted, adding those all are flexible lots which are available in varying sizes–a half-acre or one acre.
Development of the site, which also will include a new cell tower, is being done in conjunction with the roll-out of Tbaytel’s fibre optic service to Fort Frances this summer.
“If you’re thinking about building in the industrial park, the best time to buy would be now,” Drysdale advised.
“With a couple of those lots left, we’ll have the opportunity to put someone into something shovel-ready,” she added.
“A year from now, we could be in a position where we’re going back in and looking at developing the next phase of the industrial park or getting some backfill on some lots.”
The town also has 10 “Class 2” lots–including two which are not serviced yet but are excavated and backfilled and eight that are not yet serviced and are not yet excavated or backfilled.
“The inverse side of the wonderful landscape we live on–the Canadian Shield/Rainy Lake and the Rainy River–is we have a lot of water,” Drysdale said.
“As likely everyone in Fort Frances knows, there’s muskeg out there.
“So de-watering and backfilling and preparing lots become a bit of a challenge in creating industrial lots,” she admitted.
“So we have some sort of second in queue when we run out of lots on Sixth Street.”
A few years ago, the town undertook an industrial lot strategy and determined it would sell–under the circumstances that they would be developed–the lowest-cost industrial lots in Ontario.
“That’s not available for speculation,” stressed Drysdale.
“The price per acre of $3,500 is for people that intend to invest and grow the economy of Fort Frances by building and creating jobs.
Just like with any other property in town, the property owner is responsible for the lot line to pull water and sewer services to their property.
This is easy enough to do for some industrial park lots, such as the half-dozen along Fifth Street West and part of Sixth Street West.
But others are not currently serviced, and Drysdale said that’s something that will be looked at down the road.
Overall, the industrial lot strategy has been “pretty successful,” Drysdale said.
“I think we’re coming out of the period of uncertainty that we experienced around the mill closure that lasted about five years, when it was hard to make good investment decisions in Fort Frances,” she remarked.
“With the imminent mine opening, there’s some stability in the market and some new players–new services that are going to be required by the mine and just the expansion of businesses that have been here for a long time, that are in the sand or gravel business, that have expanded in the industrial park,” Drysdale added.
For more information, visit the town’s website at www.fortfrances.ca and look under “Business,” then “Commercial Properties.”
You also can contract Drysdale at 1-807-877-9621 or via e-mail at ecdev@fortfrances.com
