Two companies have chosen Chatham-Kent's Bloomfield Business Park to invest a combined total of over $1 million.
Chatham-Kent Economic Development Services announced on Friday that it had sold 26 acres of the industrial land to a Scottish whiskey company and Lloyd Star Global Network. Both companies have completed and signed binding agreements with the municipality.
"We have created a selection of business parks, with affordable land, outfitted that land with the infrastructure needed for development, and then put in place tax incentives that make Chatham-Kent the ideal place to build," said John Norton, general manager of Community Development.
Six acres of the land purchased by the whiskey company will be used for storage and packaging. Development for that project is expected to start within the next 60 days, and should employ 15 full-time staff once construction is finished.
Lloyd Star will begin development of cold and dry storage facilities on the other 20 acres of land in the spring of 2019. The company will look to employ around 200 people.
The sale leaves 43 acres of land available for sale at the Bloomfield Business Park, which according to CK Economic Development Services, is valued at around $50,000 per acre.
“Between these new developments and the fact that IAT Global who is already in the Bloomfield Business Park, is also expanding and building, we are confident that we are poised to be in a position to fill the property in the foreseeable future,” said Stuart McFadden, acting director of Chatham-Kent Economic Development Services. “This is a great situation for the municipality as it means the potential for more community investment in housing, retail, increased tax assessment, and other economic spinoffs.”