Mon Apr 26, 2004

A Second Life for Industrial Site

BY LISA GRACE MARR
THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

BRANTFORD. An old oak armchair sits in the middle of the blown-out room. A desk rests a few feet away. They're among the last vestiges of the 70-year-old Harding carpet factory that closed about 10 years ago. When Montgomery stepped onto the property four months ago last fall, he had to prowl around piles of tires, wood palettes, barrels of toxic waste, broken glass, bricks and garbage.
"It was a disaster... an above ground land-fill. The potential for a fire was horrendous. The emotional range (when I saw it) was 'Oh, my God'- to frustration, anger because of the way things were let go. Then it was OK, that’s it, let’s do something.”

That can-do attitude makes Steve Charest happy. He's the president of King & Benton, a
Toronto - based real estate company that bought the site in November. Montgomery was retired when Charest, a friend, asked him to head the cleanup of the largest brown-field redevelopment in Brantford's history.

King & Benton ended up paying $263,000 for the Harding site and plans to spend $3.2 million on the cleanup. Charest intends to keep some of the original buildings and use the property as a warehouse facility.


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Mon Apr 05, 2004

Clean of Harding brownfield property nears completion

BY MICHAEL-ALLLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

King and Benton Development Corp. has virtually completed its rapid demolition and cleanup of the Harding Carpets Brownfield property. King and Benton president Steve Charest led another community tour of the former Harding Carpets factory on Morell Street Saturday to show residents and some city councillors what the company has accomplished in the past month in the cleanup and transformation of the property into a warehousing facility.


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Thu Apr 01, 2004

Facility Planning for Success

Warehouse location and condition have a great impact on a company's bottom line, and choosing where to locate is not a decision that should be taken lightly. It is a process that requires research, planning and professional advice. That's why we decided to ask the experts what you need to think about when choosing where to put one of your biggest assets.

MM&D would like to thank our roundtable participants for taking the time to share their wisdom on warehousing best practices. They are: John Planeta, managing partner for CB Richard Ellis's Global Logistics Group's Canadian region; Michael Bellissimo, also with CB Richard Ellis, focused on the warehousing/logistics sector of the GTA's Commercial Real Estate market; Kathleen Hutchinson, vice-president of operations, King & Benton Developments, a Toronto-based real estate company; Alastair Strachan, national practice director, industrial, Royal LePage Commercial Inc; Bob Dineen, president and founder of Toronto-based Dominion Warehousing & Distribution, which operates 700,000 square feet in the Toronto market; and Dave Luton, a Toronto-based consultant and MM&D columnist with over 30 years experience in consulting and in logistics operations.


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