Robinson Group of Companies purchases empty Sysco warehouse property

An 11.5-acre property in west-end Kingston, Ont., has been purchased by the Robinson Group of Companies as part of a planned expansion.

The site previously held a Sysco warehouse, which closed in June. Shortly thereafter, the property went on sale.

Bernie Robinson, founder and chair of the Robinson Group of Companies, confirmed the purchase.

He says that when the Sysco property came on the market, it was an opportunity at the right time.

“We’re a service company, and we make our money on deliverables. We’re going to use it as it exists.”

Robinson says they expect to begin moving into the 175,000-square-foot property in the next few weeks and should have the building fully occupied by the end of the year.

The Robinson Group of companies provides a wide range of services — a management service company, a waste production company, their properties and I.T.division, a business networking enterprise and an investment arm, among others.

Robinson wouldn’t be specific about which arms of the company would be expanding into the Sysco building but he did say it would be a combination of some of them.

The expansion will also come with jobs, Robinson says, though he wasn’t yet willing to speculate about how many jobs will be available or how quickly they will appear.

“The intent is to fill it with good, solid long-term business and to create new, good-paying jobs in the private sector for people that live here.”

As for the remainder of the property, the long-term plan is to develop the space into a business park similar to a nearby property built by the Robinson Group of Companies.

That park, located at the corner of Gardiners Road and Centennial Drive, was an old quarry when the Robinson Group of Companies purchased it in 2001.

There are now two hotels on the property as well as a gas station and warehouse space, including a new 80,000-square-foot building that Robinson expects to be filled by the end of the year.