The City of Orillia is welcoming businesses at an accelerating pace

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The Metropolis of Orillia is understood the world over because the real-life Mariposa setting of writer Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little City. For companies trying to relocate or for brand new start-ups, the rising metropolis is turning into often known as the vacation spot of alternative providing geography, life-style, affordability and growth alternative.

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Situated an hour’s drive north of the Higher Toronto Space and nestled between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching, Orillia is completely located within the centre of Ontario’s financial heartland. With quick access to 2 main freeway programs — the Freeway 400 and Freeway 11 and Freeway 12 corridors — town provides prepared entry to 130 million prospects in Canada and the U.S.

Dan Landry, supervisor of enterprise retention and growth with the Metropolis of Orillia, has been working to advertise enterprise within the space for 12 years however has lived there for much longer. He’s noticed the realm’s financial progress, which took off within the Nineteen Nineties.

“The weather for a rising economic system have been in place for a very long time,” he says. “It’s merely that actual progress has caught up with the appreciation of these alternatives by companies. And whereas the entire metropolis has prospered, the expansion on Orillia’s west aspect has been astronomical.”

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One latest enterprise success story is the event of town’s Horne Enterprise Park, a fully-serviced financial growth zone situated a couple of hundred metres from Freeway 11. Initially developed in 2015 and providing 40 acres of land, a lot of that land was shortly acquired by Hydro One as the house of the brand new Ontario Grid Management Centre and by the Ontario Provincial Police for development of a brand new detachment.

“When choosing the positioning of the brand new Ontario grid management centre, we took into consideration the proximity to different Hydro One websites, freeway and roadway entry, and price,” says David Lebeter, chief working officer, Hydro One. “The rising neighborhood in West Orillia is a superb place to develop our footprint within the area, and proceed this sturdy partnership with town. This funding will play a major function in Hydro One’s progress in Orillia, and the province.”

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Lebeter notes that Hydro One is dedicated to energizing life for purchasers within the communities it serves, and is devoted to growing its spending with Ontario-based suppliers, together with corporations offering native items and companies.

Orillia Mayor Steve Clarke describes Hydro One’s resolution to develop in Orillia as “a watershed second.”

Metropolis Council additionally acknowledged the necessity to create room for extra alternatives for enterprise, so an extra 24 acres of serviced land has been added to the Horne Enterprise Park and is presently available on the market.

“This can enable Orillia to take care of the momentum of financial progress and develop town’s industrial base,” says Mayor Clarke. “It’s offering further alternatives not just for corporations to find right here, however to develop enterprise relationships with one another.”

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Totally-serviced tons are presently priced as little as $399,000 per acre and at the moment are shovel-ready for brand new growth. The town may also proceed its standard “zero industrial growth cost” coverage till the tip of 2021.

Nonetheless, Landry notes that entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders are being drawn to Orillia not solely due to its financial benefits, however due to the realm’s high quality of life.

“They need to do enterprise, however additionally they must see what town provides on a private stage,” he says. “Individuals who transfer right here from the GTA don’t have any bother deciding what they’re going to do with the hours they reclaim from their commuting time every week. From water and outside actions to winter recreation, Orillia provides a lot.”

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“And with native indifferent houses starting within the $500,000 vary, many are discovering Orillia is a protected and reasonably priced option to reside, work (from residence) and play.”

The town additionally boasts border-to-border fibre connectivity, a brand new recreation centre and library, campuses of each Lakehead College and Georgian School, and newly renovated hospital services. Orillia can be a regional purchasing vacation spot providing the world’s prime manufacturers together with a singular mixture of shoppes, cafes and eating places in a heritage downtown setting.

“For a number of years we have been seeing loads of tire kickers who confirmed important curiosity in finding in Orillia,” says Landry. “Lately, they’ve stopped kicking and began coming. Alternatives just like the Horne Enterprise Park are paving the best way.”

For extra data on Orillia and the enterprise alternatives it provides, go to businessinorillia.ca

This story was created by Content material Works, Postmedia’s industrial content material division, on behalf of the Metropolis of Orillia.