Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Work started last year will begin to pay dividends for the Town of Greater Napanee in 2024.
That’s the way mayor Terry Richardson sees it as he took time to look to the year ahead with the Napanee Beaver.
“In 2023 we laid a lot of groundwork for things that are going happen this year,” said Richardson. “I’m extremely excited about it, just in some of things that happened late in 2023 with the Goodyear expansion. That’s pretty exciting stuff. I think that’s going to attract other large industry to our municipality and it’s a really exciting time. I’ve said this many times before, we’re very fortunate to have a very balanced community in the fact that we have some opportunity for some large industrial growth and we also have the opportunity for residential growth as well and of course what follows is the commercial growth.”
Richardson referred to a decision made by council during its final meeting of 2023, when they approved an application by Goodyear Canada Inc. to take part in the town’s recently created Industrial Community Improvement Plan.
Known at CIP, the program provides partial relief from municipal taxes to assist local businesses during start-up operations.
Goodyear Inc. applied for the grant on behalf of their Napanee plant as they seek to expand operations by 420,000 square feet as they ramp up production of tires for electric vehicles. The expansion would not only support the 800 jobs currently at the plant, but could create an additional 200. Goodyear’s projected expansion budget is upwards of $550 million.
Also approved late last month was an expansion to the currently-under-construction Gibbard District condo and retail building.
Architectural drawings of the proposed expansion to the current Gibbard District project.
“The Gibbard project, which was in a bit of a holding pattern, is now right in full growth, right to the point where they’re going to add another 71 condo units to the project,” said Richardson. “That’s welcomed. Every month that goes by it’s really fun to see it going up a little bit higher and a little bit higher and it’s going to really be a jewel for our downtown.”
Just on the other side of the tracks from the Gibbard District is the Springside Meadows development on Old Hamburg Road. Land is already being cleared for that 467 unit project with a completion date of 2025.
Also breaking ground last year was the new site of Village Green, located at Hwy 41 and Drive-In Rd as well as a long term care home next to the Lennox and Addington County General Hospital, which will provide 120 and 128 beds respectively.
“Those are the tangible results that we want to see,” Richardson said of the various projects that got started in 2023. “I can talk until I’m blue in the face about all the good stuff, but when you see companies, I’ll go back to Goodyear, they’re not only talking about being here longer term but about a big expansion. That bodes very well for the community and for our municipality and I think we’re only going to see other big things and nice things happening in 2024 and beyond.”
Richardson also noted the incoming five-storey, 76 room Tru by Hilton hotel on Jim Kimmett Boulevard, next to the Strathcona Paper Centre, as another positive development for the community.
Last October also marked one year since the last election for the current council. Among their highlights were reaching a deal with Deseronto Transit to offer fixed stops throughout Napanee.
“I really do think this is going to be the start of something very nice to happen to our community and for Deseronto,” said Richardson. “It’s something that the people in the community have been asking for a long time and I think this transition that we’re going to try to make with some fixed stops both within our municipality and Deseronto, I really do think it’s the start of something special.”
The maiden voyage for that bus route took place Jan. 9 and now links Napanee to Belleville, with 21 stops in between.
With the aforementioned projects in mind, Richardson says there’s good reason for optimism for the town heading into 2024.