ALBERTA REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Northern Premier Investments founder and Jencor Mortgage co-owner, Croft Axsen, for over 20 years has been involved with the real estate industry financing, purchasing, building and developing many projects over the years both personally and through limited partnership joint-ventures. Over the years Croft has also helped mentor a number of clients, family and friends to build their own real estate portfolios and wealth through real estate investments.
The City of Edmonton recognizes the enormous opportunity to benefit from the complimentary growth in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, just kilometers from its northern border. An area closest to the heartland within the NE quadrant of the city has been identified to be rezoned to industrial land. This area of 5180 hectares (12,800 acres) has recently been named the Horse Hills Eco Industrial Park, with only 1.2M sqft available in this critical quadrant it has shown 0.0% vacancy through all of 2008.Stephen Mandel, Mayor of Edmonton said in the November 7, 2007 Edmonton Journal:
“We need to fast track the development of the N.E. (Edmonton) as soon as possible”
“We want to fast-track it as quickly as we can so that we have that land on stream right away”
An Area Structure Plan for the Horse Hills Eco Industrial Park was completed by the city in October 2008 and largely made up of findings and recommendations contained in an industry analysis commissioned in June 2007 by the Alberta Government, the City of Edmonton, the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation and the Industrial Heartland Association and prepared by the Kline Group.
The report, delivered in May 2008, called for the development of an eco industrial cluster focused on petro chemical value add products, including related industries to support operations such as Logistics (warehouse/shipping) facilities, Manufacturing, a business park, and Research & Development. This is a very large initiative and strategic to the Industrial Heartland with far reaching implications for decades to come as Alberta continues to build this petro-chemical value add chain.
THE OPPORTUNITY
$50 billion has been committed for this region thus far by industry with the government expecting upwards of $130 billion in total project spending by 2018. The investment by industry combined with the city and province’s desire to make use of the Industrial Heartland’s byproducts (feedstock) is having a catalyst effect on petro-chemical opportunities in the area. Currently this feedstock (upgrader bottoms, petroleum-coke) is exported to the US Gulf Coast and around the world for the production of value added products such as methanol and ammonia, which is eventually sold back to Alberta refineries to be used in the production of fuels and further downstream petro-chemicals. The Kline report details what opportunities exist for Alberta to produce products within the value added chain. Further, it benchmarks seven world class facilities to help Edmonton and the Alberta Industrial Heartland (AIH) Association understand what economic rational exists for Alberta’s petro-chemical industry to produce 31 strategically imperative products in a new world class Eco Industrial Chemical Cluster.
The city of Edmonton planners have taken the Kline report and created an industrial area concept suitable to meet the reports recommendations under the “Horse Hills” eco industrial Area Structure Plan (ASP). The ASP plan goes before public hearings in December of this year (2008) where it is expected to receive council approval early in 2009 given Stephen Mandel’s political will. Read a copy of the concept plan here.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Northern Premier Investments Ltd. owns 526 acres of agricultural land within the
“Horse Hill” ASP on the northern and eastern most borders of Edmonton,
- This property is the closest land within the city to the industrial heartland.
- One mile of frontage along each of hwy 37 (northern border of Edmonton) and hwy 28A (road to Ft. McMurray) with ½ mile of frontage along 33rd Street. This combined with a main arterial roadway through the property will provide exceptional access for businesses moving and consolidate products.
- Power and gas are on the land with Capital Region System water and sewage nearby.
- With a land use designation of Logistics and Manufacturing it will allow for large multi-tenant facilities providing an attractive level of densities. The Port Alberta initiative has been underway for the past several years working toward western diversification and how the provincial and federal governments are moving to strengthen our ties to global markets. This diversification means our project is strategic beyond Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, read more on the Port Alberta initiative here.
- The city would like to see development begin as early as
2009-2010.
- We believe these features provide excellent fundamentals for our project.
This property is right between the Heartland and the City of Edmonton with what we believe is an excellent opportunity for investors to benefit from the upswing on the value of land when we apply and receive the re-zoning to industrial usage.
This poses a unique situation for investors as the scheduled timeline for the re-zoning is very quick.
We are in discussion with the city planners to facilitate our application early next year. Our dealings with the City have us feeling very confident that our application for re-zoning with be well received by the City of Edmonton.
We look forward to hearing from you, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call us at anytime.
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