Lethbridge Sherring Industrial Park fielding inquires for new business

Construction is underway at the $360,000,000 Cavendish Potato Processing Plant in north Lethbridge’s Sherring Industrial Park, with acres of land next to it open for the taking.

The federal and provincial governments provided $20,000,000 worth of funding for a water main expansion in the area, to help with the Cavendish project as well as future ones.

On Wednesday, while touring the Cavendish site, Mayor Chris Spearman commented on the importance of government funding.

“Bringing the funding for the infrastructure, to bring that infrastructure out to this site, allows us to fill in the space between here and the other developed industrial park,” Spearman said.

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That in-between space amounts to a total of 412 acres of land, and thanks to the funding, it will now fully be equipped with services like water mains, sewer lines, roads, and utilities.

The serviced area will soon be ready for new businesses to move in.

“We’ve been fielding numerous calls over the past couple of years,” City of Lethbridge land manager Michael Kelly said. “We’re gathering information, passing it along to them, but we’re confident that we’ll see more investment come to our community.”

The city’s confidence comes from investors who have already decided to make Lethbridge home.

“What’s nice about the other sales that we’ve had in 2016 and 2017, along with Cavendish, is it’s sending messages to other investors that these companies have all done their due diligence and they see that Lethbridge is a good place to invest,” Kelly said.

Kelly says the types of businesses Lethbridge could see break ground in the open spots are ones that need space for heavy industrial operations.

The city says the going rate for heavy industrial land in the Sherring Industrial Park area is $195,000 per acre.

Officials say there aren’t timelines in place right now as to when’ the land must be sold.