Statement structures

The benefits of locating or expanding within Atlantic Canada begin with some of the best real estate pricing per square foot in Canada — but it doesn’t stop there. With organizations and agencies like Moncton Industrial Development, Commercial Properties, and Pinnacle Engineering in the area, you’ll find everything you could possibly want in terms of variety, long-term payoff, environmental considerations and creative planning solutions. Read on to find out more about what they have to offer.

Moncton Industrial Development (MID) was established in 1959 as a joint initiative of the City of Moncton and the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce. Now, almost 60 years later, the development agency is still working hard to drive economic growth within the city. 
 
General manager Pierre Dupuis explains: “Our main purpose is to invest and develop industrial and commercial land for businesses, supporting organic growth for companies that are already here, while also accommodating companies coming in from outside.”
 
With the city’s original industrial park at full capacity, Moncton Industrial Development is now in the engineering phase of a new project that will complement MID’s other parks: Moncton Industrial Park West and Caledonia Industrial Estates.
 
The new, 125-acre development will be located along the Trans-Canada Highway, almost adjacent to Caledonia Industrial Park. But unlike the current park, which focuses on businesses that often require several acres to accommodate their 40,000 or 100,000 square feet of space, this one will be designed to accommodate small to medium-sized businesses. This new focus will enable the agency to support a wider range of businesses, which over the long-term, is better for the city. 
 

“As an arms-length city agency, our main focus is tax-based growth,” says Dupuis. “Within the next 20 years, the tax base of this new development will generate between $10-20 million in tax revenues for the city. Obviously that can change based on the size and scale of the projects coming in, but on average we’re looking at the city benefitting quite well over the long term.”

Growing businesses will benefit, too. Usually, it’s tough for Moncton Industrial Development to find the right place for a business that wants to move from a 2,000-square-foot building to a 7,000-square-foot building — but that’s exactly what this park is designed for. 
 
“This will do two things,” says Dupuis. “It will allow organizations to grow in a spot that’s more conducive to the size and scale of their business, and it will allow us to keep our larger lots.  This will save us from having to continually subdivide our larger lots to accommodate smaller projects.”  

When they start accepting development proposals in the early fall, the agency will be looking for a few key things. In particular, they want interesting, attractive looking buildings that blend well with the other structures in the area. 
 
“The proposed buildings have to include certain landscape and architectural features that will fit within our park,” says Dupuis. “We’re aiming for something besides your typical brown field where people put up any type of building. We want the buildings to have some features — maybe there’s masonry in the front façade — that will make the new business park attractive for both developers looking to secure their investments and for people that work and do business in the park. Landscaping features will also need to be integrated within the developments.  So, trees, landscaping in the front yards, paved parking lots and driveways, that sort of thing.”

“It’s a way to protect someone’s investment,” says Dupuis. “Knowing that you’re putting up a building with certain aesthetic features similar to other developments in the park is important. We’re really trying to make sure that businesses are able to invest in a park that will allow them to secure their value over the long-term.”

Pinnacle Engineering Limited is a full-service civil engineering, planning and project management firm located in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Since 2007, they’ve been providing these services to municipal, commercial, residential and industrial clients.
 
Many of these projects have involved designing and managing infrastructure construction, including water supply systems, sanitary and storm sewer systems, watercourse crossings, and public streets. They’ve also been involved in the development of both residential subdivisions and retail box store developments.
 
Each of these projects has presented its own unique challenges, but Pinnacle Engineering always rises to the occasion. When looking at past projects, it doesn’t take long to see evidence of innovation — whether they’ve engineered lands with unfavorable terrain to be fully serviced with municipal infrastructure, or they’ve figured out how to install underground infrastructure around an office building without interfering with the building’s geothermal wells.
 
Perhaps most impressively, they were involved in the planning, design and construction of the Galway/Glencrest development, which is one of the most robust developments in the history of St. John’s.

If we can learn anything from these organizations, it’s that Atlantic Canada is full of creative thinkers who can find a way to help your business achieve its goals. Better yet, these organizations are focused on making things happen in a responsible, environmentally friendly way, ensuring your investments stand the test of time. •

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