The decision to buy back three properties at Bloomfield Business Park in Chatham will be discussed again by the council at Monday night’s meeting.
On February 10, Director of Economic Development Services Stuart McFadden requested that the council approve the re-purchase of approximately eight acres in the Bloomfield Business Park for $712,000.
In the report, McFadden said the owners’ lack of development was “due to high interest rates and changing markets” and that they “failed to secure clients for their proposed warehousing facilities and have been unable to begin construction without secured leases in place.”
This motion was then pushed to the February 24 meeting by Ward 2 councillor Anthony Ceccacci.
“These are municipal investments,” explained Ceccacci. “When you are investing in a municipal business park you want to ensure that you have a return on your investment and the properties are invested in a way that is beneficial to our community.”
In 2022, council received and approved a report outlining the terms and conditions of a sale of lots in Bloomfield Business Park to 100249108 Ontario Inc, ER Steel Inc., and Raco Asset Management Corp. Part of the deal was to have construction commence on the properties within one year.
According to McFadden, by council not providing the current property owners an extension, the municipality can proceed to market them for other economic development opportunities as municipally-owned industrial serviced land is limited.
At the February 10 meeting, Ceccacci referenced an email that had been sent to him by a constituent about the repurchasing of the property by council and while he wouldn’t reveal to CKXS news who the email had come from he did allude that it was from one of the current property owners.
“They had some questions, and because I didn’t actually get the email until five to six I was not able to navigate those questions through to staff in an appropriate time frame,” said Ceccacci.
“I’ve now had the opportunity to speak to staff in economic development to ensure that my questions were answered to ensure we are making the decision based on the appropriate information available.”
Ceccacci couldn’t go into too much detail as to what questions were in the email, but as for why the municipality would be considering purchasing back the three properties, Ceccacci said it all comes down to the municipality not wanting sites to stay dormant when services provided by tax dollars have already been allotted to them for reasons of development.
If the motion is not passed on Monday, the Ward Two councillor said he assumes the property would remain with the current owners.
As for whether the owners are even interested in selling back to the municipality, Ceccacci wouldn’t comment simply telling CKXS News, “I think that the next meeting will give the opportunity for the owner to potentially provide feedback to council.”