Cornwall calls in the Experts

BY DON RYDER

When you want carpentry work done you call a carpenter.
When Cornwall wanted more business development it call in a business developer.

Last September Cornwall Mayor Jack Kelly did just that by selling a 50 per cent share of the Cornwall Business Park to APM, a Charlottetown based property developer with experience in commercial projects across Atlantic Canada.

Kelly said the town wanted to see the 50-acre fully serviced property filled with businesses that would bring employment, activity and tax-paying properties to the town.

The new partnership leaves Cornwall developing physical infrastructure while APM recruits tenants and provides advice on the best ways to get funding from P.E.I. Business Development or federal programs like the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

“As mayor, our primary interest is developing the town we want to make sure we have facilities available that entrepreneurs can take advantage of and the town can grow,” Kelly said.

The mayor said Cornwall is seeing signs of new development in the park, with Central Truss and Wall Systems recently opened and more business anticipated.

“It’s one of these things that one day there’s no sales and all of a sudden a lot of things start to happen … when you have a developer like APM who has the contacts it should be a very good marriage,” he said.

Other park tenants include Acadia Drywall, Thermotech’s window plant and Central Marine Fibreglass.

The town had added its own presence to the industrial park, building a new water reservoir and maintenance building at the park’s far end.

Cornwall administrator Kevin McCarville said the secret to the town’s success has been allowing its partner to use its strengths as a developer. He said a shared interest should help both community and APM.

“Part of the agreement when the transaction took place was that the day-to-day business arrangements and contracts went through APM,” he said.

“They didn’t buy half the property they bought 50 per cent of all the property.”

McCarville said the town doesn’t see itself being a full-time property developer. He said their best-case scenario would be to see the last of the 50-acre property sold to business tenants and Cornwall out of the industrial park business.

Kelly said Cornwall council has chosen the business park as a way to exercise leadership in making the community a thriving place to live and work.

“It’s about growing our town,” he said. “It’s about opportunities for new and existing businesses to develop and expand and it’s about tax revenues that are needed for operations. It’s about attracting a labour force to town that will buy homes and services in the town.”