‘The buildings going up, the jobs being created’
Developers can’t build fast enough at CentrePort
Martin Cash
By: Martin Cash
Posted: 2:02 AM CDT Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022
Last Modified: 9:18 AM CDT Thursday, Oct. 13
When Satpal (Sam) Sidhu and his partners at Whiteland Developers bought their first 80 acres of open field in CentrePort in 2018 they knew there was strong demand for industrial land.
That development, BrookPort Business Park, came on the heels of another successful industrial park to the south that sold out quickly.
But still, it was empty land on the west side of Brookside Boulevard north of Inkster Boulevard, far from where any other industrial development was occurring.
Amritpal Jhand (left) CEO of Whiteland Developers, and Satpal Sidhu, president of Whiteland Developers, at their property at CentrePort. The company has developed more than 300 acres of CentrePort land for industrial buildings.
Since then the transplanted Winnipegger has successfully developed 305 acres – all of it sold, with more than 40 businesses now operating where there were none only four years ago.
Whiteland has another 55 acres left for BrookPort phase IV that will come on the market next year, and that will be it.
“It has been very successful,” Sidhu said. “Everything has gone very well.”
After the end of Wednesday’s annual stakeholders’ tour — which has to be more carefully curated every year because of CentrePort’s growing footprint — Diane Gray, the out-going CEO of CentrePort said, “It is satisfying to see everything fall into place.”
Gray, who is stepping down at the end of next week to become deputy minister of Prairies Economic Development Canada or PrairiesCan (formerly Western Economic Diversification), said that despite the dramatic development over the past few years it is only the tip of the iceberg.
“You talk about the building blocks that are necessary — the planning and zoning and development approvals and infrastructure — but to see the market respond in the way it has — the buildings going up, the jobs being created… it is exceeding my expectations,” said Gray.
Right now there is more than 600,000 square feet of buildings under construction in CentrePort after more than $70 million worth of building permits issued this year.
Included in that is 300,000 square feet of multi-tenant industrial that Calgary-based Hopewell Development is doing on land purchased from Whiteland’s BrookPort phase III and Whiteland itself is developing its own 84,000 square foot multi-tenant building near the 100,000 square foot building it leases to Nutrien on Brookside Boulevard.
Whiteland has plans for another 74,000 square foot building adjacent to those that it plans to develop next year.
There is now no dispute about CentrePort’s success and Kurt Shmon, the president and owner along with his wife Betty, of Imperial Seeds is a perfect example of the manifestation of the CentrePort vision.
After buying the company in 2008 its previous one acre location on Arlington Street was quickly becoming a hindrance to growth.
Shmon bought 20 acres on the north side of CentrePort Canada Way in 2017 and put up a 15,000 square foot office and 30,000 square foot warehouse for its forage and turf seed business that exports to about 30 countries around the world.
The company is now building another 30,000 square foot warehouse and still has plenty of room to grow, which Shmon said is very much in the cards.
Diane Gray, president and CEO of CentrePort.
“We could have gone to Portage la Prairie or Regina and we looked at lots of locations,” he said. “But we found CentrePort offered us the best opportunities.”
The result of that sort of decision-making is music to the ears of Deputy Premier and Minster of Economic Development, Investment and Trade, Cliff Cullen.
“Our government is pleased to work collaboratively with CentrePort and all business and industry leaders to create the conditions to make Manitoba more competitive, foster job creation, incent investment and spur economic growth, now and well into the future,” he said.
While Gray’s departure is brilliantly timed after 13 years of amazing growth, her successor will have a great platform to build on the successes that have occurred to date.
Infrastructure servicing agreements with the City of Winnipeg for another 1,800 acres of industrial land and 500 acres for residential south and west of the airport, is imminent.
Victoria, B.C.-based Focus Equities won the lengthy and rigorous RFP to develop 665 acres of land that the province owned on behalf of CentrePort to develop a very specialized rail park that will provide large rail dependent operators access to the Canadian Pacific main line with connections to CN and BNSF.
The first phase of that project has been subdivided and discussions with prospective tenants are taking place. That development will provide CentrePort with on-going revenue.
More than $350 million worth of building permits have been issued for CentrePort developments over the past five years, and anyone you talk to will tell you that demand for modern industrial space is expected to continue.
And like Sidhu said, with industrial land in the Greater Toronto Area selling for $3 million per acre and land in CentrePort selling for about $500,000 per acre (up from $350,000 for Whiteland’s first phase of Brookport) trucking and distribution companies who are working from coast to coast are realizing there’s a much more cost effective place to park their trucks in the middle of the country at CentrePort.