Warehouse businesses are moving in to the area around the Calgary International Airport.
The airport has about 1,800 acres that aren’t needed for actual airport purposes, says Mike Cunnington, director of land development for the Calgary Airport Authority. It leases 5,070 acres from the federal government and the other 3,200 are needed for airport operations.
Around the airport, industrial and commercial businesses are locating in new business parks. Some of them benefit from fast access to air transport.
Cunnington says the airport intends to maximize its value as an intermodal hub, develop compatible land uses and add value, and promote commercial growth in the region through tourism and other economic effects.
Sitting between truck and plane transport, intermodal cargo operations add value. Most air cargo moves at night and doesn’t take up a lot of terminal space, he says.
The airport offers airside and groundside industrial space. Groundside is ordinary industrial or commercial land that happens to be at the airport.
Airside is within the security fence and has direct access to taxi ways or runways, says Cunnington.
Airside includes such uses as the new WestJet hangar and the Esso and Shell aviation centres. Courier companies’ operations are quasi-airside.
The 10-year plan involves about 800 acres, including about 45 acres in the Deerfoot South area to be leased this year. Part of McCall South — the area near the Esso Avitat and Executive Flight Centre — will be serviced this year as well. The rest of McCall South is at least temporarily off the market, pending completion of a possible large deal, he says.
The next project will probably be east of Barlow Trail between Airport Trail and Country Hills Boulevard N.E. Other industrial airport lands include an e-commerce park in the northwest corner, where the airside land is for couriers.
It’s already serviced for businesses distributing goods sold into this region over the Internet, he adds.
About 400 acres east of Barlow Trail has been put aside as recreational space.
“About the only thing you can put on the threshold of a runway is a golf course,” he says.
One development the airport wants to delay as long as possible is a new north-south runway east of Barlow Trail, paralleling the current Runway 16-34. When the runway will be needed isn’t certain, he says.
It might be eight or 10 years, but 25 years ago people said it would be 10 years, he says. The airport-improvement fee doesn’t cover the eventual new runway and the price tag is $200 million.
There’s more development just west of the airport on a roughly triangular plot familiar to everyone who goes past 64th Avenue N.E. on the Deerfoot. The second phase of Deerfoot Business Park is becoming quite a technical centre, says Larry Mason, president of Remington Development Corp.
Remington started the project three years ago as a joint venture with the city, with Remington putting up the money and the city putting up the land.
The area was developed and Remington bought some of the city’s parcels at market value and sold some of its plots to other companies, says Mason.
At the top of the triangle, three flex buildings form Deerpoint Tech Centre where 8th and 10th Streets N.E. come together. They total more than 180,000 sq. ft. in one-storey construction.
South of the tech centre is Centre 810, including the Panasonic wireless design centre scheduled to open early this summer. The three-story Panasonic building is just over 80,000 sq. ft. and includes 25,000 sq. ft. of office space available for lease on the main floor, says Mason.
While the Deerpoint Tech Centre is flex space, Centre 810 is office space, he adds.
South of Centre 810, 72nd Avenue N.E. separates the office areas from more industrial uses, and south of 64th Avenue N.E. is Deerfoot Mall.
On the far side of the airport, Hopewell Development Corp. is putting up its own business park.
Doug Johannson, vice-president of leasing for Hopewell, says the company has 100 acres of development land in northeast Calgary. About 87 are in Hopewell Business Park, mostly south of McKnight Boulevard and east of Barlow Trail. Only 15 acres there aren’t spoken for. Hopewell will build its corporate headquarters there.
Another 25 acres north of McKnight are still to be developed.
Quite a few technology firms have moved in to the business park. Other companies include suppliers to the technology sector.
“It’s being amazingly well received in the market,” says Johannson.
The section north of McKnight will eventually see a hotel and four restaurants, including two beside the hotel, he says.
Web Watch:
www.calgaryairport.com
www.hopewell.com
www.remingtoncorp.com
www.marriott.com
