Town of St. Marys purchases 90 Carling Street at a cost of $1.5 million

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In June, the Town of St. Marys officially purchased 16.67 acres of land at 90 Carling St., a move that will allow for the establishment of a light industrial park and improve vehicular access to Widder Street East.

At the July 22 council meeting, the town officially informed the public of its $1.5-million purchase of the land and council approved a staff recommendation to finance $1.2 million of that cost through a 10-year debt with annual payments of approximately $150,000.

“(In 2024), we pursued this because it was an opportunistic purchase to address two strategic priorities of ours, one being to create a secondary access to Widder Street East as well as to pursue our strategic priority of developing light industrial lands,” CAO Brent Kittmer said during the council meeting. “As far as next steps, what I’m asking for tonight is council’s approval for staff to proceed with planning approvals for a light industrial park.”

Based on conceptual drawings included in the report to council, Kittmer said the industrial park would include 15 lots with an internal roadway and an already negotiated easement that would create that secondary access to Widder Street East at some point in the future.

Currently, the Town of St. Marys has identified a public-safety risk in the Widder Street East area because there is only one vehicular access point for that street. This risk has resulted in prohibitions in the town’s official plan that prevent further residential development in the area north of Trout Creek and east of the CNR overpass.

“There’s no immediate plans to create that secondary access to Widder Street East,” Kittmer said. “We would have to create that internal roadway at 90 Carling first and foremost to have it properly sited up against the easement, but again, it is there and ready to be developed at a point in the future when we are ready.”

The decision to subdivide 90 Carling St. into 15 lots zoned for light industry was made to address a need for additional industrial land based on future growth projections, as well as a clear demand for smaller industrial lots to help keep existing businesses in St. Marys.

Kittmer told council the work involved in developing this property will be “tremendously expensive,” with estimates ranging from $3-4 million to bring servicing to the property and another $3-4 million to complete the internal work. To help foot the bill, he said the town will apply for significant grant funding from the province.

“This is the type of thing that the province has been pushing us to do and it will be interesting to see. There was money recently in Sebringville and other municipalities surrounding – North Perth as well – so I think this will be a strong candidate for provincial funding,” Mayor Al Strathdee said. “If it isn’t, I know my votes will be changing.

“ … I think this land purchase is positive. As we know, there have been businesses that have left the community because this type of land hasn’t been available, so I think this will put us in a good position strategically moving forward.”