Woodstock Developments and News

[Djeffery]

Searched and didn't see a thread for Woodstock like there are for other SWO communities, so now that I live here, I figured I would add one for stuff I see close to home.

First one is this that came in the mail Tuesday for a 270 unit subdivision proposal in Northwest Woodstock on land currently occupied by Ontario government offices. Large greenspace on the northeast corner of Lakeview Dr and highway 59. Will be interesting to see the NIMBY's of Woodstock in action to see how they compare to London as this subdivision plan goes through the approval process. This is a Farhi proposal, so who knows whether it will ever happen, but I have heard he does more stuff he says he will outside of London than in it.

[ScreamingViking]

Good idea.

Woodstock is an interesting town. I imagine Toyota is an enormous influence for many of the people, but I've always been impressed by the town's core, and 59 between Dundas St. and the river has many beautiful older homes. There are some really nice country drives northward along 59 and the sideroads west and east. I haven't explored much of the town though, especially south of Dundas St. and along the Thames river and lake.

I can see how people would not like losing that greenspace, but it does seem a good location for new homes without expanding farther out into the surrounding farmland.

[johnnyhamont]

Oxford County is also contributing land and funding to a 48-unit, 4-storey apartment building on Southwood Way, half of which will be affordable housing.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...rtment-complex

[Djeffery]

A few updates. The residential project I posted about above has got the NIMBY's on Lakeview out in force. Our condo board sent out an email that their group has going around opposing this "excessive intensification". They are enlisting the support of those of us on the west side of 59. Apparently this is up for approval at the city in February.

Sierra Group is starting work on the Toyota Boshoku plant expansion on Universal Drive. I haven't seen info yet on how big this expansion is.

They also recently poured the floor slab for the new Home 2 Suites Hotel behind the Holiday Inn at Norwich and Juliana. The hotel is planned to open in Jan 2025 and already has a listing on the Hilton website https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/xip...-woodstock-on/

A very large project is underway on Dundas across from Home Hardware on the site of the old CBM. Steel started going up this week but I haven't been able to find any info on what is being built here. One post on Facebook suggests it's just a new building for Pre-Con, which still has a smaller building on site.

Further east on Dundas, there is something going up next to the Esso/Tim Hortons at Cty Rd 4. Weird project as they started clearing the land 2 years ago and fenced it off, then started work again this year but it's going slow. They are building concrete block walls but they seem to be jumping around on the site with which wall they are going to work on that day. Very strange. Across the road, beside Woodstock Ford, they are clearing and leveling the land, not sure if this is for more parking for Ford or if something is being built there as well.

In the industrial park north of Dundas along Woodall Way, lots of building going on. Very large warehouses and industrial plazas. No signs for any tenants yet but I imagine in this climate, they aren't building that much space to sit on.

And last but not least, Gold Bricks, which I know of from my time in west London where they are building a plaza at the RiverBend entrance, is starting work on a new plaza at Juliana and Montclair, adjacent to Walmart. They have a page on their website but no imaging or info, although I've heard Taco Bell is possibly one tenant.

[Djeffery]

Confirmed that the large project on Dundas is a rebuild for Pre-Con. Very heavy duty looking steel framing going up on site now.

The site beside Esso/Tim Hortons at 2 and cty rd 4 looks like it will be more than one floor, as it looks like stairwells are being built at either end.

Also the construction beside the Ford dealer is going to be a new VW dealership.

[Djeffery]

I was reading the city council minutes and a mention was made of the 2 hotels under construction as part of the wider increase in construction value for 2023. I inquired where the second one was and it turns out the construction beside Esso at Dundas and country rd 4 is the other hotel, containing 90 rooms. Not sure what brand this one will be. Also being constructed is a Denny's restaurant

A major road project begins in mid-February as the rail/river bridge on Oxford Rd 59 will commence a refurbishment that will last until the end of the year. Supposedly, one lane northbound will be maintained throughout, while no southbound access will be provided.

One business relocating into the new industrial park at the east end of Devonshire (Griffin Way, running south from Devonshire) is IPEX from London. IPEX/Multi Fittings on Wilton Grove is moving their distribution centre to what looks to be pretty close to a 200,000 sq ft newbuild. They will maintain manufacturing in London. They should be open sometime in February. There is a large amount of space being built in this park right now, will be interesting to see how much is spoken for and how long it takes to lease out the rest.

[Djeffery]

During my browsing of the council minutes, I went back over the last few council meetings and read about varaious land sales in the industrial park on the south side of the 401. A new street was laid out a couple years ago and the city put the land up for sale last year. They have had solid interest in this property. This site is to the east of Jack Ross Ave, between Patullo Rd and the 401. If you are on the 401, there is a new mini storage yard on the north side at the bottom of the hill west of the 403. This new industrial road, Alyea Street (named for the family the city bought the land from) is directly across the 401 from that. I'll post the map below. Here are the land sales that I could find. I should clarify that these aren't closed deals at this point.

Site A was sold to local developer 214 Carson, which plans 280,000 sq ft of leasable space. They have several other properties in Woodstock, Brantford and Ingersoll. They also own the 12 acre lot adjacent to the west side of this property with access to Ridgeway Ave and Jack Ross Ave.

Site B was sold to Inno Foods Inc, which plans 220,000 sq ft over 2 phases to manufacture snack foods. They anticipate 100 jobs.

Site C was sold to High Noon Investment Corp, which plans a 113,000 sq ft abbatoir and chicken processing plant. The report to council says the purchaser is using a holding company name to purchase the property to hide the company's well known name for competitive reasons until closer to construction. They anticipate 300 jobs once up and running.

Site D has a numbered Ontario company planning a 105,000 sq ft manufacturing site for building materials.

Site H was purchased by Paper4U with plans for 36,000 sq ft for paper manufacturing and approx 25 jobs.

Site I and J was sold to a Dutch company, Acier Stigterstaal, who intends to build at least 64,000 sq ft warehouse to supply steel to the maritime industry.

That leaves E F and G that I haven't found info on, although I may have also missed something.

Also, an adjacent piece of land on Jack Ross Ave, immediately west of the lot line between C and D, was sold to VALO Biomedia, which plans for a 42,000 sq ft facility "to be used for the cleaning, storage, incubation and shipping of SPF (specific pathogen free) eggs for the vaccine industry."

[jammer139]

Woodstock's housing goals article.


https://lfpress.com/news/area-city-p...money-at-stake

[jammer139]

New elementary school for Woodstock one step closer.




https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...mentary-school

[Djeffery]

Sign up at the new hotel under construction at Dundas and County Rd 4, this will be a Marriott TownePlace Suites. No work started on the Denny's next door other than the foundation that was put in when the hotel foundation went in. They are working on the 3rd floor of the hotel now, and it's being built out of cinder block construction. Down the street, the foundation has been poured for the new VW dealership beside Ford.

The new PreCon building on Dundas pretty much has all the walls up, although it looks like a smaller section at the southwest corner is now being framed up, probably the office area.

Also wasn't aware Vuteq was putting a big addition on their original factory beside Home Depot. Nice to see this company continually expanding, show strength in the automotive sector. Also in this neighbourhood, several foundations have now been poured at the Gold Bricks plaza on the corner of Juliana and Montclair. Will be interesting to see whether this plaza has any tenants (I mentioned above I heard Taco Bell, but nothing mentioned on the developer site), unlike their Riverbend London plaza which last I went by a couple weeks ago, was totally built and not one unit had work going on in it.

Another new business has located in the Griffin Way industrial park. Rearz is a distributor of diaper products and has relocated a distribution centre from Cambridge to Woodstock. I haven't been able to determine yet if IPEX has started their DC operation here as of yet.

[Djeffery]

Precon, from Springbank.

[ScreamingViking]

At first glance that looks like an Amazon warehouse!

Woodstock is prime territory for development.

[jammer139]

Woodstock takes another step to a new elementary school in the north end.




https://london.ctvnews.ca/woodstock-...hool-1.6842006

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

At first glance that looks like an Amazon warehouse!

Woodstock is prime territory for development.

I'm amazed at the industrial development going on here. There is a big piece of land on Cty Rd 4 south of the CN tracks that has a Broccolini sign on it with "1 million sq ft" on it. Of course, they are the developer known for Amazon so I immediately perked up when I saw that sign. My company moves a lot of product for Amazon, we already move several trailers a week into each of Hamilton and St Thomas, and soon enough the new Kitchener centre will open. Amazon has slowed their growth a bit, as we saw with St Thomas sitting for longer than we thought and Kitchener has been done for a while as well with no opening date announced. So, I don't think a Woodstock Amazon is happening anytime soon. But you never know, and it's not like Amazon is Broccolini's only client.