By next July Barrie should have another 65,000 square feet of commercial and industrial space.
Mayor Alex Nuttall highlighted the development by the Aerarium Group at 311 King St. Monday afternoon, and what it could create.
“We talk a lot about housing,” he said. “These are the jobs for folks who are moving to Barrie, who live in Barrie, who don’t want to commute anymore.”
“The project, 65,000 sq. ft., has the potential of possibly 300 employees,” said Aerarium president Steve Sperling, who could not say what type of jobs could be created.
He did say this will be Aerarium’s 42nd building in Barrie and the company has had about 600 tenants.
“Barrie’s been a great success for us,” Sperling said. “I mean we hit the odd hard spots, but right now everything’s great and we hardly have any vacancies - so we had to build.”
He said Aerarium’s next project, which will likely be at Salem Road and Veterans Drive in about two years, will be a much larger development.
Sperling said 311 King St. would not have happened without the help of city staff and Nuttall.
“We were on the verge of cancelling it and they came across and helped us out,” Sperling said.
Nuttall said this project was approved through the city’s development process.
“The city continues to be committed to supporting our local growth of employment,” he said, “and making sure that our land space inventory has a strong mix of shovel ready and tenant ready facilities available right now.”
The city’s building department issued a new general industrial building permit for 311 King St. worth $8.5 million in August of 2023, the largest value that month.
“The nicest thing today is not just what you see behind us (311 King St.),” Nuttall said, “but the fact that there’s already plans to move on to the next one as well.”
