By mid-2018, other than a small portion of space leased to BWXT Nuclear, the 44 acre General Electric Canada factory complex in Peterborough will be occupied by 50 employees.
General Electric has gone on record as saying they are concentrating on the remaining workforce at the factory before dealing with future uses for the site.
After over 100 years in use, the site is known to be contaminated by toxic chemicals which must be dealt with before any new use of the space is contemplated and such remediation will be expensive. But despite the costs of remediation, many say the site is a valuable asset for Peterborough and should be thought of that way.
“Unused or underutilized land in the heart of our city definitely should be looked at on how that can be redeveloped in the future,” said Rhonda Keenan, president and CEO of Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development.
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The city of Oshawa dealt with a similar situation with former General Motors plants. In one case, the city swapped the former downtown factory site for a piece of south Oshawa property GM wanted. Director of planning for the city Warren Munro said the city had to pay for the cleanup of the old factory but feels it was worth it.
“You have areas that are former manufacturing sites that are no longer considered to be attractive to industry: they’re not near a 400-series highway, they don’t have a lot of parking, but you end up with these sites that are abandoned, or vacant or underutilized. So, it’s important, from a perspective of community building, to have new uses introduced onto the properties,” said Munro.
In the case of the GM plant, the original structures were demolished.
But there is a case to be made for preserving industrial buildings, like those at GE.
John Stephenson is the president of the Ontario Association of Architects and says the complex is valuable from a historic and cultural sense.
“It has a context and a kind of an edge condition which is part of the history of the community — very important part of the community. So one shouldn’t leap to the conclusion that industrial buildings, once they have outlived their industrial use, are just to be thrown away.”