So far so good with the $19.4-million Lasalle/Elisabella Industrial Area infrastructure upgrade, city project manager Miranda Edwards told Sudbury.com.
The project, intended to shore up industrial lands with municipal infrastructure upgrades, is “on budget, on schedule” so far, with work underway on the eastern end of Lasalle Boulevard.
Plus, Edwards said, the project has been “well-received” by the local business community.
“They were very interested in evaluating their opportunities,” she said, noting that increased infrastructure capacity helps make expansions possible.
An early success story is JENNMAR Canada’s recent announcement of adding 8,500 square feet onto their existing 30,000-square-foot facility on Lasalle Boulevard.
Specializing in manufacturing ground support and tunnelling products primarily for mining, the expansion is anticipated to ramp their local employee base from 41 to more than 50.
During an expansion announcement event in April, Mayor Paul Lefebvre credited the Lasalle/Elisabella infrastructure project with making it viable.
“The cost of servicing industrial land is really expensive, so that's why we're working hard to address that,” Lefebvre said at the time. “That, to me, is how we're going to grow our city and be able to offset so they keep taxes from being raised too much by being able to have more businesses, more residents.”
Lefebvre has maintained a long-term goal of seeing Greater Sudbury’s population hit 200,000 by 2050. At the latest update, the city’s population was approximately 179,965.
The Lasalle/Elisabella project was approved by city council as part of the city’s 2024 budget, at which time a business case stated it would be a full cost-recovery effort with “a net positive return of investment of $15.8 million over the 50-year life of these new assets, which will be recovered through industrial assessment growth.” Approximately 23 per cent of the total cost is eligible to be recovered via development charges.
Full cost recovery is still the plan, Edwards told Sudbury.com, and phase one is well underway.
From Falconbridge to Elisabella, Lasalle Boulevard’s water main, sanitary and storm sewers are being reconstructed alongside the road, with a sidewalk added to the south side.
“That project is on schedule, on budget and we anticipate being complete by the end of this construction season, with some small restoration into 2026,” Edwards said.
Phase two will continue the project east down Lasalle Boulevard past Foundry Street, and south down Elisabella to Lapointe Street. The city is currently in the public consultation phase with business owners in the area, and anticipates an autumn start date and completion by 2027.
Despite “a lot of interest in the area,” undersized infrastructure has bottlenecked development, Edwards said, with upsized infrastructure anticipated to allow for future growth by improving such things as fire flow. Current road quality in the area ranges from “poor” to “very poor.”
Once complete, the project is anticipated to allow for the development of 61 properties at 50 hectares with service capacity at their lot line, and 21 properties at 255 hectares with service capacity requiring private-side expansion.
The Lasalle/Elisabella project is part of the city’s broader employment land strategy, which city council approved in 2022. The strategy aims to spur development with infrastructure upgrades, financial incentives and policy changes.
The strategy is key to achieving population growth targets, according to a business case for the Lasalle/Elisabella project, which noted that 40 per cent of the projected 11,400 to 18,000 new jobs created by 2051 will be in designated employment areas.
~With files by Lindsay Kelly
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
