THUNDER BAY – The city’s economic development commission is taking an introductory look at whether developing a food hub would be viable in Thunder Bay.
Last month the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Commission issued an expression of interest, calling on corporations, entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations to provide input on whether the city needs an “indoor agricultural, processing, climate-controlled sales, storage and shipping facility” that would be anticipated to lead to job growth and increased consumption of local food.
Doug Murray, chief executive officer of the economic development commission, said this is the starting point on identifying potential growth in the food sector as the organization begins to prepare its next strategic plan.
“This is our little indicator to see what’s going on in the community to start the process and then say (whether) we should spend more time on this in the next three years of our strategic plan to grow this segment of the economy with our partners that are already involved in this area,” Murray said on Tuesday.
The expression of interest, which closes May 19, will give the economic development commission a sense of the demand for commercial space or light industrial space to grow, process, store, ship and sell product. They are looking specifically for input that can help advise specific facility requirements for “indoor vertical or greenhouse farming, food processing, climate-controlled storage and access to retail space.”
Murray said a collaborative approach informed by industry needs can lead to stronger growth than different ventures trying to blaze their own path.
“There is also a chance to look at it and say if we collectively did everything together, how could we make this even better so it succeeds as opposed to lots of independent people trying to do it and it didn’t succeed because we had five guys trying to do this instead of one collective effort,” Murray said.
The facility, tentatively referred to as the Thunder Bay Food Hub, would have a minimum of 2,000 square feet available for lease or rent and could play a significant role in helping start-up companies or small enterprises take the next step.
“Capital costs, processing costs and establishing yourself in the marketplace those are all expensive items,” Murray said.
“You have to get over that hurdle and having more space that’s passed inspection, more storage space, more access to being able to ship product, more freezer or refrigerator space. Those people can now grow their business and concentrate on marketing and getting that product out and making the product as opposed to where they’re going to store the stuff while they’re trying to sell. Now they can worry about the selling because we’ve got the infrastructure in place to be able to handle that.”
The expression of interest seeks details about the type of space available with criteria such as square footage requirements, type of storage, production and processing requirements, shipping needs, demand for on-site retail, waste disposal, technological requirements, administration space requirements and hours of operation.
Until those questions are answered, it’s impossible to start looking at the logistics of the food hub, Murray said.
“It would be very premature and speculative to say how many thousands of square feet this would be and where it would go,” Murray said. “Building a brand new building is expensive. But location is also important for people to get there, trucks to back in, people to load stuff. All of that has to come into consideration.”
More information about the expression of interest can be found online.
