Fri Jun 24, 2005

Y's plans good for city

EDITORIAL
BRANTFORD EXPOSITOR

This week, the city voted to transfer the land to the Y, which plans to build a $12-million facility there.

In the meantime, the Y is renovating the dilapidated Work Wear building at Wellington and Clarence streets, to be called the Family Program Centre. It will move some of its programs to the building in September.

Said Brian Wood, vice-president of the Y’s board of directors: “Our future has been redefined in the most positive terms.”

In the end, the Y will have two new facilities in the downtown area, new energy, new supporters – and the city will be better off.


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Thu Jun 23, 2005

Y officials upbeat about future

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

With land from the city, a new CEO, new board members and a community support group behind it, a re-energized YM-YWCA is moving full speed ahead with its plan to build a $12-million facility next to Earl Haig Park.

In the short period of time the Y must:

Vacate its longtime building on Queen Street by the end of August;
Take up quarters in a revamped transitional facility in the old Work Wear building at Wellington and Clarence streets, to be called the Family Program Centre. Move-in is tentatively scheduled for the first week of September;
And undertake the first stages of planning for its new facility.


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Tue Jun 21, 2005

City to give Y land

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

The YM-YWCA has the green light to proceed with its dream of building a permanent home next to Earl Haig Park.

Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday to deed to the Y – for a nominal $1 sum – a 4.5-acre parcel of city land that contains the Go Kart track beside Earl Haig Park, south of the civic centre, off Market Street South.


Until the new permanent home is ready, the Y will operate most programs at its transitional Family Program Centre site that is being build in the former Work Wear building at Wellington and Clarence streets.


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Tue Jun 14, 2005

Big interest in Ontario's small markets

BY CRAIG SAUNDERS
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

As the land crunch in the Greater Toronto Area sends commercial developers farther afield, even those smaller communities are beginning to experience tightness in land availability and vacancies.

And the mayor of one of the hottest destinations for developers is happy about it.
As mayor of Brantford, Mike Hancock has seen the small southwestern Ontario city enter an unprecedented industrial boom.

Brantford has been the big beneficiary, with roughly two million square feet of industrial development in the past year. In addition to P&G and Ferrero, which invested $70-million and $150-million, respectively, the city's location on the 403 also attracted other companies, mostly in warehouse distribution and food manufacturing.

Land is becoming scarce in the city, according to John Frabotta, director of Brantford's economic development department. This is thanks, in part, to Ferrero's acquisition of 162 acres.
The city's 309-acre Northwest Industrial Park, which opened in 2001, now only has 30 acres left. Mr. Frabotta said the city is bringing another 76 acres on line near the 403 highway, then "we're out of land municipally." However, two parcels of private land totalling just over 200 acres will be available.


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