
LONG SAULT – South Stormont council has agreed to sell 60 acres (24 hectares) of land in Ingleside for a future warehousing and logistics center.
The deal will potentially create dozens of jobs for the community.
The $1.2 million deal with Wills Realco Inc. – the real estate arm of Wills Transfer Limited – will see a warehouse and distribution center built on the northwest corner of Industrial Drive and 45th Parallel Drive.
The land in the Ingleside Industrial Park was found by the Smiths Falls company because it’s a “development-ready site” certified through Ontario’s Investment Ready: Certified Site Program.
South Stormont Planner Peter Young told council Wednesday afternoon the distribution center will be built in stages but could possibly be as large as 200,000 square feet by the time it’s fully built out.
“They’re looking to start construction either this fall or next spring so…we’ll be looking forward to working with them on the site plan and building permits as well,” Young said.
Coun. Andrew Guindon asked about local jobs.
Young says it will depend on the building phases but “overall spinoff could be in the hundreds if there’s trucking, everything like that. On site, there will be more in the dozens of employees. It depends where the truckers live. If they live nearby or they commute from elsewhere. But there will be office facilities there for a lot of on site employees.”
Young noted that the preliminary plan shows 100 parking spaces so there will be “good amount of employees on site.”
“I think we’re all really, really exited to see something happen with that parcel of land and we look forward to welcoming Wills Realco Inc. to our community,” Coun. Jennifer MacIsaac added.
Should the development not go through, the contract has a provision to allow the township to buy back the land at the same price. The future proceeds will be put in a land development reserve for future projects.
Wills Transfer has warehousing and third party logistics locations in Smiths Falls, Brockville, Ottawa and Perth. The company ships and handles goods for other companies from raw materials to finished items and also provides climate-controlled space to store them.