The City of Terrace is looking for consultants to design a plan to market the build-out of the Skeena Industrial Development Park (SIDP).
This follows the city’s enrolment in the province’s regional entrepreneur immigration program to attract more foreign investors to the area with a focus on the SIDP, which the city considers its bread and butter when it comes to generating a new industrial tax base.
READ MORE: Terrace participating in BC’s immigration entrepreneur program
“Increasingly we are facing pressures for infrastructure and services that are requiring a focus on industrial development to generate new sources of revenue and continue to support economic growth in our community,” the city’s request for proposals reads.
The consultants will be required to develop an Investment Attraction Strategy for the SIDP which would research what is feasible in key markets and sectors, complete a strategic analysis, and recommend development incentives to attract or retain business there, among others.
Contributors for the project include Global Affairs Canada, Prince Rupert Port Authority, Kitselas Development Corp. and Taisheng International Investment Services, along with the City of Terrace as project lead.
A variety of developments have already been investigated or proposed to manufacture goods at the SIDP including aluminium, food, containerized LNG, fibre board and other wood products and steel components.
A significant portion of undeveloped land has not been sold and is still available within the SIDP for industrial development, the city says.
In 2013, the 2,400-acre site saw its first land sale of 10-acres to Global Dewatering Ltd., which specializes in the removal of groundwater from industrial locations. Taisheng owns a bulk of the available land at 1,187 acres, Global owns 17 acres, and the Kitselas First Nation owns a 172-acre parcel with a portion under lease to Chevron and partnership projects on additional lands to support major projects nearby.
Work on the lands to get them ready for purchase has seen multimillion-dollar investments into utility and supporting infrastructure construction.
On Taisheng’s land, road construction on Jack Talstra Way, the main entry point into the SIDP, is scheduled to be completed by May. Once paving is done, work on shallow utilities including telephone, cable TV, electric and gas services will follow. Designs for a water system are finished but first need to pass a provincial environmental study, and a contract for the geothermal work required was awarded to Daudet Creek Contracting Ltd. in Kitimat, according to Richard Zhang, managing director of Taisheng International Investment Services Inc.
Though the possibility of building a transloading facility to get products made at the SIDP into Asian markets through the Port of Prince Rupert first needs a higher volume and diversity of exported goods to make it financially viable.
READ MORE: Terrace working toward viable transload facility
The request for proposals will be kept open until 4 p.m. on April 26.
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