Mon Aug 28, 2006

$500-million project poses questions for city council

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

A presentation to be made at a public forum meeting tonight by rising local developer hands city council an excellent opportunity to take a good look at its entire approach to economic development.

Steve Charest, the admittedly brash, impatient young president of King & Benton, will officially unveil the major details of a $500-million commercial and industrial mega-development covering his entire business park on the Oak Park North lands just above Highway 403.

He’s doing that because he wants a public discussion about the benefits of his impressive project to the Brantford area and he hopes council will help staff get in the facilitative spirit to put the finishing touches on getting over some important hurdles.

But more than that, he’d like to begin a serious discussion about how the city should do business with industrial and commercial developers now that the city is running out of municipal land.


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Sat Aug 26, 2006

Local developer to unveil $500-million mega-development

BY MICHAEL-ALLAN MARION
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

Local developer King and Benton is ready to unveil a $500-million commercial and industrial mega-development north of Highway 403. Charest wants to build a combined prestige industrial park and power centre on about 450 acres of land his company owns on each side of Oak Park Road, north of the 403.

Here are the main features revealed by King and Benton officials in a presentation to The Expositor:

An industrial centre of large buildings will be built on the west side of Oak Park Road, offering a collective 4.7 million square feet of space for warehousing, distribution offices and light assembly.

An 800,000-square-foot retail power centre and office complex is planned for the east side, containing big-box stores and a cinema.

Altogether, the assemblage of buildings will take up 44 per cent of total lot coverage, much higher than in the citys Northwest Business Park to the south or Braneida Industrial Park in the northeast.

When complete, the entire $500-million development would yield at least $10 million per year in commercial and industrial tax revenue.

It would create an estimated 5,000 new jobs.

King and Benton would donate land to allow for the construction of a new $7-million interchange at Oak Park Road and 403, needed to handle both the greatly increased traffic at Oak Park North and the Northwest Business Park to the south.


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