Park Brings New Economic Opportunities to Cape Breton
Atlantic Canada's newest business park welcomed visitors today, July 23, to learn about its innovative tenants and exciting development plans for its future in Sydney.
Fifteen tenants have already set up offices in the 121 hectare (300 acres) Harbourside Commercial Park, which is located on the former Sydney Steel plant site. Space is available for commercial, industrial and office enterprises.
The park is owned by Harbourside Commercial Park Incorporated, a provincial Crown corporation established by the province in April.
"Harbourside Commercial Park will bring much needed economic activity and new jobs to the area," said Transportation and Public Works Minister Angus MacIsaac. "This is part of the province"s ongoing commitment to supporting economic development in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality."
Wataire Industries Inc., a global leader in the manufacturing of atmospheric water generators, is one of the innovative businesses that calls Harbourside Commercial Park home.
"Reasonable building costs and the availability of a skilled workforce were two major factors in our company's decision to establish our main manufacturing site in Harbourside," said Mr. Nand Shankar, Wataire's vice-president.
Nova Scotia Lands Incorporated, has also been established as a Crown corporation by the province to manage the completion of the environmental cleanup on the former steel plant site. As parts of the site are remediated they will be transferred to Harbourside Commercial Park, which will manage the remediated land as well as other related lands and leases.
The province has provided $10 million in financing to Harbourside Commercial Park, through the Industrial Expansion Fund to purchase the assets - land and buildings - of the Sydney Steel Corporation (Sysco) to continue to build and market the business park.
The first phase of site remediation at the former 182 hectare (450 acres) Sysco site has been completed, and 28.8 hectares (71.2 acres) have been made available for redevelopment.
About 1.2 kilometres of new road, curb, landscaping and related infrastructure have been built, and opened to the public, within the first phase of park development.
More information is available at www.harcom.ca.