North Bay’s airport industrial park is going to get a little busier with the addition of a new business soon, Canada Meat Group.
Council approved the sale of about three acres of land to the new company for approximately $123,000, which will soon be filled with a meat processing plant. The firm is newly incorporated in Canada.
“We have land up at the airport we’ve been actively trying to pursue business opportunities with,” Coun. Derek Shogren said after the meeting. “This is a new company coming into town, so I’ll leave it up to them to talk about the particulars of what they’re doing.”
A sod turning event will likely be scheduled in the spring.
While he wouldn’t go into too many details, leaving it up to Canada Meat Group to make the announcements, he did say that it was great to show that the airport could be used to various business types.
“It shows the multi-use facilities of the airport,” he said. “It doesn’t just have to be aerospace-related businesses, it can be a multitude. I’m hoping it’s the first of many we see in some of that surplus land; we have a whole development plan coming through Invest North Bay for the airport.”
And while council approved the sale of the city-owned land, Shogren said it was the efforts of Invest North Bay that helped seal the deal with Canada Meat.
“This has been something Invest North Bay has spearheaded,” he said, noting that the $1 million council had given the board was not used to create this opportunity. “It’s been a one year process they have been looking at that one area as well as many others and hopefully this announcement is the first of many.”
Shogren said that while many people want to see results every day, it’s something we’d likely see in the coming years as businesses move up to the area.
“It’s great for the city,” he said, “and it’s great for the economy.”
