Two companies are planning big building projects – an expansion to a plant in the north end and a new plant in the new Hanlon Creek Business Park – that are expected to create hundreds of jobs over the next few years.
Hitachi, which manufactures mining trucks at a plant on Woodlawn Road, plans to start construction this year on a 167,000-sq.-ft. expansion that it says should increase its workforce to between 800 and 975, from the current 400, by the year 2018.
The new plant in the new south end business park is for a refrigerated distribution centre for a “food industry sector company” whose identity isn’t yet being made public, said a city staff report that was withdrawn prior to the Feb. 6 council meeting. The report said the company has chosen a 20.7-acre site and plans to have a 282,000-sq.-ft. building constructed, which would initially employ 80 to 90 people. There is potential for building expansion and more jobs in the future, the report says.
Construction is to start in March or April, with occupancy by December, but a building permit won’t be ready by March 1.
A request by Hitachi for a break on development charges was approved by city council on Feb. 6. The company will pay the current industrial rate of development charge, rather than a higher one that takes effect March 1. This saves Hitachi almost $160,000. The $32-million Hitachi project is part of its Japanese parent company’s plan to boost Hitachi’s worldwide market share for mining trucks, says the local plant’s CEO, Hideo Kitawaki. The plant expansion will include a new assembly building, a new welding robot system and a new paint facility, and new models of dump trucks are to be built here.
In a letter to city hall, Kitawaki says the aim is to increase local production to 280 units by 2018 from the current 150 units a year.
Trucks have been built on the Woodlawn Road site for many years by Euclid and more recently by Hitachi, which acquired Euclid in 2000.
Hitachi has chosen Maple Reinders, which built the city’s new composting facility, to build its plant expansion. However, plans are not quite advanced enough to get a building permit by March 1, Kitawaki’s letter says.
Although not discussed at the Monday council meeting, a city hall report said the unidentified new Hanlon Creek Business Park company also wanted to pay development charges at the pre-March 1 rate. It  would save about $600,000, says the report, which notes that Guelph was one of several municipalities vying for this plant.
Guelph was told other municipalities were prepared to defer development charges for up to five years, it says.