Ontario Construction News staff writer
Norwood Industries Inc., which manufactures portable sawmills, has purchased 12 acres of industrial land in Orillia’s Horne Business Park.
The city has also sold land to the Drs. Runk, Porter and McNaull Family Medicine Clinic.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Norwood Sawmills and Drs. Runk, Porter and McNaull Family Medicine Clinic to the Horne Business Park,” said Orillia Mayor Steve Clarke.
“The Family Medicine Clinic will be a great practice to serve our growing population in West Orillia. Norwood is a global leader in sawmill innovation and is growing at a remarkable pace.
“We look forward to these two outstanding businesses building their new facilities in West Orillia in the near future.”
The medical clinic will be built on Lot 17 (0.9 acres) and will initially house three physicians, a nurse and three support staff with room to grow.
“West Orillia is an exciting new development area with lots of opportunity,” said Dr. Benjamin McNaull. “We want to establish a family medicine clinic in this up-and-coming part of the city to serve the health care needs of our patients.”
McNaull confirmed that site and building design is well underway with construction anticipated to begin as early as late 2022.
In 2017 Norwood moved its growing Canadian headquarters to a custom-built 32,000 sq. ft. facility in Oro-Medonte but quickly outgrew the space, leading them to purchase 11.7 acres over six lots in Orillia. Their sawmills are sold to outdoorsmen, landowners, farmers and woodworkers across North America, throughout Europe and around the world.
“For a couple of years, we have been looking for a suitable new home for Norwood’s Canadian operation where we could build an office and warehouse complex nearly three times the size of the current facility,” said Chief Executive Officer Ashlynne Dale. “The Horne Business Park is ideal because the building envelope will give us the space needed to accommodate our high-volume throughputs, to better service our domestic customers and international dealers, and to provide an inviting workspace in which our team can flourish. Further, the oversized lot gives us the room for future expansion as we continue to drive explosive growth.”
Construction of Norwood’s new Canadian facility is expected to begin in 2022.
In addition to the two sales that are now complete, another two lots have been secured under an agreement of purchase and sale, with completion of the sale anticipated in early 2022.
Lots are priced starting at $449,900 per acre and are zoned to permit a range of prestige industrial uses such as light to medium industrial uses, business and professionals offices, research and development facilities, contractor yards, and service and custom workshops.