First bread, now auto parts – Hamilton business parks are picking up some steam. It was announced today that Navistar, which is International Harvester, is bringing a parts depot to the Redhill business park across the street from Canada Breads new plant. It is planned to be up and running in 2014 and will replace their present plant in Burlington. The plant will be 250,000 sq. ft. and will bring 50–60 jobs. This very company left Hamilton years ago and the fact that they are returning is the big deal behind this development.
The mayor was quoted “To have this company return to our community is another major step in our continued renaissance. It also demonstrates that the investment this Council made in our Economic Development function was money well spent as it continues to provide measurable returns in non–residential assessment and jobs.” To put this quote in layman’s terms, it is good to see the city actually doing their job. The Economic Development has been doing an excellent job by moving fast and not allowing the councilor’s time to screw things up by grandstanding and prematurely letting the cat out of the bag.
The NHL and the placement of the new stadium for the Tiger Cats are prime examples where the past and some present councilors put their agenda and egos before the needs of the city. They spent more time getting press and puffing out their chests than actually doing their jobs and they screwed it up. The Canada Bread development was all done before the councilors were even told about it. They had a meeting, gave them all the information and asked them to vote. This is the way it should be done and this is why we have these developments.
The developer of the project, Mr. Joe Hamadi, stated “On Friday, May 4th we requested a meeting with the Mayor, City Manager and Senior Staff. That meeting was convened on Monday May 7th and a pre–consultation meeting for the project was held with Senior City staff four days later. This is clearly a municipality that wants investment and can deliver service.” This quote says it all and does not have to be deciphered as a politician’s quote does. Taking care of business is what the business world wants, not a dog and pony show. The city responded in a businesslike manner and nobody was scared away from grandstanding in the media. Take a second to close the deal – then tweet about it to your heart’s content.
These developments are bringing jobs and people to our city which creates a strong real estate market. We have a great base to build on and it seems that city hall is finally getting it right. I hope they are learning from their recent success and we will be making the right choices for our future. If they pick the right company to run Copps and Hamilton Place, future hotels, condos and maybe even a NHL team may come out of this decision. These developments impact everyone's taxes, equity etc., and if they keep going in the right direction we will all be winners! V
Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca
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