City Meeting with APM said Positive

Charlottetown – The chair of Charlottetown’s tourism and economic development committee says a meeting last week with officials of the APM Group to discuss the possible location of the APM Group’s new corporate headquarters in Charlottetown was a positive one.

Councillor Ken Gillis said Sunday a number of points were discussed at a meeting with Brian Gillis, APM’s vice president of business development, but he did not elaborate on the nature of those issues.

“We reviewed a number of points and we will be putting in a proposal for APM’s new headquarters” Gillis said. “We have worked with APM in the past and we hope to work with them again in the future.”

The real estate and construction firm is consolidating its corporate staff, now located in Halifax, Moncton, St John’s and Charlottetown, PEI into a new 30,000 square foot state of the art office complex.
Gillis said the city hopes to hear from the APM Group before the end of August as to what its intentions are regarding the complex location.

“The APM Group is a big developer in this province and we hope to site down with them on a regular basis to discuss what their plans are for this city and what the city is willing to do. We would make that same offer to any developer”.

Cornwall and Stratford have also expressed interest in securing APM’s multimillion dollar headquarters and the 100 jobs that go with it.

City council was of the belief that the complex was going to be built on land across the street from the Sears store in the Royalty Power Centre.

But in a recent newspaper ad APM called for a request for proposals from cities, towns and communities across PEI for the relocation of the corporate headquarters.

The company said any proposals should include “any inducements which will be made available to APM group. It should also provide a detailed assessment of the benefits, workforce and costs of relocating in a given community”.