Lambton was one of about eight initial locations, all in Ontario, Crown Royal-making Diageo considered when the United Kingdom-based company in late 2018 began considering where to build a $245-million distillery, says the realtor who did the legwork on their behalf .
Lambton was one of about eight initial locations, all in Ontario, Crown Royal-making Diageo considered when the United Kingdom-based company in late 2018 began considering where to build a $245-million distillery, says the realtor who did the legwork on their behalf .
Her mandate was to find a parcel of more than 40 hectares with rail on site or close by, said Kathy Kolodziej, Jones Lang Lasalle Real Estate’s vice-president industrial.
By the time plans were publicly announced earlier this year for the build, off Moore Line, near Highway 40, the land mass for the carbon-neutral distillery, maturation, blending, warehousing – and potentially future visitation and tasting centre, she said – had ballooned four-fold.
“It’s a multi-year process,” said Matthew Slotwinski, senior economic development officer with the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership that worked closely with Kolodziej to secure the deal Diageo has said will mean “dozens” of local jobs.
Officials with the partnership that works to promote Sarnia-Lambton and attract economic investment, with $1.3-million in annual backing from member municipalities, said SLEP wants people to understand what happened behind the scenes to get there.
“It’s often not known the efforts taken by the organization” and community partners like municipalities, he said.
“I think there’s an opportunity to prove to the community … (SLEP) serves value not only to those (municipalities) but certainly to the residents of the communities as well.”
Most of the more than 100 leads the economic partnership pursues annually are proactive, but some – like the Diageo deal – come to their doorstep, based on advertising Lambton’s strength like petrochemicals, agriculture, and the desire to diversify and expand into things like sustainable chemistry and food processing, he said.
When Kolodziej approached, and until “well into 2021,” SLEP didn’t actually know the company interested was Diageo, he said.
Kolodziej said she did, but didn’t have authorization to disclose that early on.
“My process was I would call all the economic development folks across the province … figure out what was the power available inside, what was the water and sewer capacities” of sites, she said.
Wind direction studies were also needed because of the smell, and the St. Clair Township site was ultimately decided upon because of it’s proximity to rail, because there wasn’t a lot of residential around, and because the site was already zoned industrial, she said.
Discussions were also held with the township about upgrades needed for water, sewer and electricity capacity.
All were green-lit, she said.
“At the end of the day, that kind of prompted (Diageo) to make a decision to go with the St. Clair property,” she said, noting the company visited about three sites before deciding.
It wasn’t the only Lambton site initially proposed, Slotwinski said.
Privately-owned locations in Sarnia and Warwick Township were also suggested by SLEP early on, but didn’t measure up to the St. Clair site in terms of meeting Diageo’s needs, he said.
To get the 161 hectares of primarily farmland eventually required, four landowners were approached, and sold collectively for $21.5 million, he and Kolodziej said.
It was a smooth process and everyone was “super nice,” Kolodziej said.
“Everybody was kind of surprised I guess at the beginning, and then we submitted our initial offers; we got responses and continued negotiating.”
There was a lot of gratitude at the end, “for Diageo to be coming to the (area) and also the fact that, for some people, I guess they changed their lives,” she said.
One of the properties was severed as part of the deal, and setbacks were eased during a committee of adjustment process with the township that wrapped up in December last year, said township CAO John Rodey.
“They wanted greater visibility on Highway 40, being the major route,” he said.
Design work is underway for the site plan, he said.
Diageo has said it plans to break ground this year, with hopes of opening by 2025.
Slotwinski praised the municipality for having the foresight to have the area already zoned industrial years ago – presumably for Chemical Valley expansion – so there was no rezoning application necessary, and for planning and engineering work done with the company.
Kolodziej also offered kudos.
“Their prompt attention to ensuring we get our variances in place in order to be able to close on the transaction … everybody was just super helpful and we go through the process very, very quickly,” she said.
It’s never easy to sell farmland, said Chad Anderson, whose 40 hectares were the initial St. Clair Township pitch.
“We don’t buy land as investments, we buy it to farm it,” he said.
But the farmer and former economic partnership board member, whose home property is located just to the east, said he’s happy with the result, though finding replacement property was a bit stressful.
“Everybody in the whole process from SLEP to Diageo were very professional and accommodating,” he said.
Other reasons the collective Moore Line sites beat out other contenders include proximity to the Blue Water Bridge and St. Clair rail tunnel, along with having grains for production close at hand from local farmers, Slotwinski said.
Often SLEP doesn’t know the sites its competing against, he said.
“Our role as an organization is always to put the best foot forward.”
But it’s involved in every step of the process, from site selection, land sale negotiations, and ensuring construction goes smoothly, he said.
“Working with the company from attraction to construction to operation … and hopefully in the coming years to expansion,” he said.