Guelph Biz Park
Hanlon Creek Business Park Gives Guelph A Competitive Edge. For businesses looking to grow and expand Guelph offers a competitive land and building development landscape, partnered with a variety of employment lands and buildings available to meet most business needs. Those needs are at the heart of the Hanlon Creek Business Park. The Park is being developed in two phases with the Phase 1 lands located north of Laird Road, with approximately 120 net saleable acres developed by the City of Guelph and private developer Belmont Equity Group. Phase 2 is owned and being developed by Oakville’s Cooper Construction.
Since its creation, both areas have seen steady growth that is expected to continue following the opening of the Laird Road Hanlon Expressway Interchange opened in December 2013 and the newly announced of a highly efficient, natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) generating facility by Envida Community Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Guelph Hydro Inc., expected to be operational by late 2016.
“The approval of the Hanlon Creek CHP project is a significant milestone in advancing Guelph’s goals of achieving a reliable, secure, sustainable and affordable energy future for residents and businesses,” says Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge. “It gives Guelph a competitive edge in retaining and attracting investment and creating jobs.” These developments are expected to assist in the continued increase of development in the area.
“Sales and development activity in the Hanlon Creek Business Park have been on the upswing over the past year resulting in many new buildings currently being constructed for both new companies to Guelph and the expansion of existing local firms,” said Jim Mairs, Sr. Business Development Consultant with the City of Guelph Economic Development Services. “With the completion of the new interchange serving the Hanlon Creek Business Park,” he added, “companies have excellent transportation access to reach their customers in Guelph and beyond.”
Recent Phase 1 developments include Fusion Homes, a Guelph and region homebuilder, constructed their new head office facility; Granitworx, has completed and occupied their new modern showroom and warehouse facility; Raymond James Ltd., a leading North American independent full service investment dealer, for their new Guelph office; and Würth Canada Limited, part of the global Wurth Group headquartered in Germany, who are nearing completion of its new Canadian head office and distribution facility. “Würth Canada is excited to be moving its head offices to Guelph’s Hanlon Creek Business Park,” says Ernie Sweeney, President and CEO, Würth Canada. “Reliable and economical thermal energy services, supported by this combined heat and power facility, demonstrates the City’s continuing commitment to supporting the success of local business.”
This degree of success is seen in Phase 2, located on the east side of the Hanlon Expressway, according to Ken A. Nevar, President of Cooper Construction. “We have serviced lands and have constructed several buildings on site. We’ve now started developing our fourth building with the first three fully leased. We have 30,000 square feet pre-leased in this new building. When completed, this will make 600,000 square feet of industrial space within the four buildings.” Cooper Construction sees Guelph and the Hanlon Creek Business Park as the next logical evolution for business and industry as land opportunities for large industrial sites in the Greater Toronto Area become increasingly scarce.
Municipal and provincial investments like the Laird Road Hanlon Expressway Interchange make Guelph increasingly competitive. “Laird Road makes for great access to and it is only minutes from the 401 Highway. To run their businesses effectively, our tenants need good access to transportation corridors. It’s fundamental so the Laird Road expressway gives them really good access to major transportation links,” says Nevar.
Visit www.guelph.ca/hanloncreek for more on the Hanlon Creek Business Park Phase 1, and www.coopercon.com for more information on Phase 2.
