Ontario Picking Industrial Mega-Sites to Pitch to Investors

Ontario’s provincial government is conducting an inventory of land tracts that could accommodate large-scale manufacturing, which will be evaluated for government support modeled after state economic development programs in the US.

The government has asked property owners and developer to submit proposals for properties ranging from 500 acres to 1,500 acres by July 31 of this year.

Newmark Global Commercial Real Estate Services will evaluate the proposals as part of the government’s selection process for deciding which of the projects will receive backing from the province that will include marketing mega-sites to investors.

Thus, far, the provincial government has received 19 proposals from a targeted group of participants including industrial property owners, municipalities and economic development agencies with sites that have utilities and services already in place or are prepared to obtain them, according to a report in REMI Network.

“A mega-site brings new opportunities for long-term investment that can create thousands of good-paying direct and indirect jobs throughout the industrial supply chain to benefit communities across the whole province,” said Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, in a statement.

“Now more than ever, the challenge acts as an important investment-attraction initiative for Ontario’s economic recovery and for restarting the province’s economic engine,” Fedeli said.

Leading Newmark’s selection process will be Gregg Wassmansdorf, a Newmark senior managing director who is also a board member of Site Selectors Guild, a US-based organization of site selection consultants who advise corporate site selectors on project location decisions and work with state and local economic development organizations to shepherd projects to fruition.

“Gregg and the Newmark team have a solid track record for choosing the right communities and sites to meet the needs of major companies,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario’s Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, in a statement.

Initially proposed in 2019, the Ontario government says the inventory of mega-sites that can support large-scale manufacturing operations will be marketed to international and domestic investors as part of the province’s “open for business, open for jobs” strategy.

Mega sites typically range from 500 to 1500 acres in size and have the timing and cost of development readily known and streamlined to meet project timelines.

Ontario’s Job Site Challenge Program – the first of its kind in Canada – will identify suitable mega sites for large-scale, anchor investments. The Job Site Challenge is part of a suite of site selection services that includes the Investment Ready: Certified Site Program and other site selection services.

The Job Site Challenge Program will allow Ontario to compete with the more than 35 US jurisdictions that have either pre-certified or mega-site programs.