Industrial park potential - but big $, commitment for partners

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

There’s a strong future for a proposed industrial park in Berwick and on nearby county lands - but it’s going to cost big bucks to develop.

A year-long study on behalf of a joint evaluation by Berwick and the Municipality of Kings recommends a 45.9 hectare park, ideally situated around the old Avon Foods plant in Berwick, now owned and operated by H&G Properties (Harley and George Moody) as the private Berwick Industrial Park. By combining the two park’s geography and development potential, up to 73 hectares could be involved.

The cost: $21.5 million to build and run from 2007 to 2031 (in 2007 dollars).

“Twenty-one million is an awful lot of money for two small organizations,” Kings County Warden Fred Whalen says. “We took the report to council, and I think it scared them - on price. We’ve parked it right now, but it’s not dead.”

Berwick Mayor John Prall agrees, but says small phases - four are recommended in the study - “may be the way to go.

“It’s a good idea, and we need it in berwick and the area to keep our heads above water.”

Commercial tax rates generate more income for municipal units, and the loss in Berwick specifically of the Avon Foods plant cost the town $90,000 in reassessed taxable property in just 2008/ 2009 budgeting.

“There is a lack of space in the Valley, it’s timely to get it going and there is general consensus there is a need. We’d be catering to a variety of businesses,” Prall says.

The study recommends attracting food and beverage manufacturing, equipment and machinery repair facilities, climate controlled storage and materials removal facilities. With an annual projected existing job relocation rate to the park from the county of 0.08 per cent, about 2,656 jobs could be there by 2031.

Building the park from scratch as a green site - environmental design, better land maximization, alternative energy sources and green management - is an attractive selling point, but Prall says there the big expenses come in new roads and providing some kind of pressurized water supply. Whalen says land being eyed for including in the park is also zoned agricultural, which could be an issue for the county in its planning priorities.

Still, rather than the town or county considering such a project on its own, the partnership may be the best chance for success.

“It’s the only way it would ever go, and even then we’d need help from the province and ACOA,” Whalen says.

“We’re going to have to have a park at some point.”

Local landowners have been consulted about the study’s proposals, “so they know what we’re doing,” Prall says.

The Western Kings Board of Trade, Kings Community Economic Development Agency and Eastern Kings Chamber of Commerce have also been involved all the way along. Both municipal councils have looked at the report, and Prall says it’s being left to planning staff and committees “to see where we can go, and look at revenues.”

Park this

The proposed industrial park intends to capitalize on projected employment growth (27,571 jobs in 2006 to 38,666 in 2031) and industrial and commercial growth and restrictions elsewhere in the county.

• Land involved: 48.2 hectares

• Cost to build and operate: $21,457,929 from 2007 to 2031 (in 2007 dollars)

• Job creation: at a 47.9-jobs-per-hectare density, 2,656 site jobs by 2031

• Property taxes - net revenue: $11,020,249 (2007 - 2031, in 2007 dollars)

• Land sales - at $86,485/ hectare (as in Kentville industrial park): $3.3 million

• Evaluating success: the town and county agreement would be reviewed every five years, once phase one of the park is complete, with the first chance to opt out no earlier than three years from end of phase one