Chew's News

Hamilton continues to make Canadian headlines for economic diversity and attractiveness to investors. A new factor, the falling loonie, is presenting even more economic opportunity for Hamilton, as demand for product from Port based industries like steel and agri-foods grows.

A number of announcements this year have positioned both Niagara and Hamilton as places to grow. While Hamilton can call itself one of the most desirable economic centres for development in the country, Niagara continues to flex it’s strength for tourism related developments.

Below are some of the biggest stories in industrial and commercial news from 2015. 

A number of months ago, I wrote a blog that spoke to how economic developments teams in both Niagara and Hamilton planned to leverage long-term investment potential during the Pan Am games.

The respective regions developed a document named the America’s Investment Playbook, which strategized industry focused events and tours for international delegates throughout duration of the games.

In a report released early last month to a City of Hamilton committee, officials announced a number of successes directly attributed to the playbook including five major investments.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes 

Hamilton's position as a desirable location for economic development continues to improve. The city was most recently recognized both nationally and internationally for its economic viability and just last week released construction permit values to solidify it's position.

For the fourth year in a row and the fifth time in six years, building permits reached over $1 billion in value in Hamilton. With a total of 783 permits issued as of the end of October, this number could potentially rise over $1 billion to close out the year. 

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes 

For over a decade Hamilton pushed for a Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD); it was in February of this year that the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) finally approved a net of 555 hectares of land around the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport for employment lands designation.

With the approval, the AEGD becomes Hamilton’s largest urban boundary expansion. The city has a variety of employment land districts but also, has many brownfield parcels that have undergone decades of heavy industry. The designation of this land, allows Hamilton desirable green space for industry. Hamilton now looks to market the land to large industry players.  

For many years Hamilton residents, private consultants and city officials have been privately and publicly considering the possibilities for U.S. Steel’s land. The company currently occupies 328 hectares of waterfront land in Hamilton’s bay area.

There has been a concession that the city must have influence on how this land is redeveloped and revitalized and that an overarching plan must be put in place to guide development. In response, the city hired Deloitte to construct a Phase 1 waterfront market opportunity strategy.

The study released last week, recommends that the city purchase strategic pieces of the land in order to reuse those plots as for industrial purposes.

In April, Ancaster based waste water treatment manufacturers Fibracast, received a $10 million dollar loan from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev). The loan was awarded so that the company could focus on the production of it's "game changing" water treatment membranes by constructing a new Hamilton based advanced manufacturing facility. 

The new technology advanced manufacturing facility will be built in Stoney Creek along Glover Road. The facility will produce new technology water treatment membranes and will be the only company to so in North America. 

Each year fDI intelligence, a Financial Times publication, releases an annual American Cities of the Future report. In this years report, 16 Ontario based municipalities were named Cities of the Future, including Niagara Falls and Hamilton. Toronto was the most triumphant Ontario municipality, placing 6th in overall American Cities of the Future for 2015/16.

The report ranked 421 North and South American locations under the following categories: business friendliness, economic potential, human capital and lifestyle, connectivity,cost-effectiveness and fDI strategy.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The Marine Discovery Centre may be the last piece of the puzzle in Hamilton's plans for waterfront redevelopment. The Federal government's timely announcement that it will hand over ownership of the building to the city, will allow Hamilton complete control over all development on Pier 8. Plans for development of Hamilton's waterfront began more than 25 years ago and in 2000 the plans shifted into motion with a transfer of ownership from the Port Authority to the city. With 13,000 square metres of leaseable space available for development and a concentration on attracting residential and commercial developers on the cities behalf, Hamilton's waterfront is now truly open to private development. 

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Many articles have emerged over the past year recognizing Hamilton's ecomonic vitality for residential, industrial and commercial real estate development. With economically diverse key industries, an educated workforce and a waterfront with a significant amount of opportunities for development, commercial and industrial developers have a number of calculated reasons to look to Hamilton for their next investment opportunity. Below are three core ways that the city has been able to position itself as an attractive location for development.