Cooper Construction and its partners have completed the construction, development and lease-up of Phase 2 of the Hanlon Creek Business Park (HCBP) in the south end of Guelph, Ont.

This second phase of Hanlon Creek encompasses 1.9 million square feet of class-A industrial and corporate office buildings on a 140-acre site adjacent to the Hanlon Expressway. Its uses include manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, vertical farming and corporate offices.

HCBP’s second phase features state-of-the-art and environmentally sustainable facilities, green spaces, electric vehicle charging stations, solar energy initiatives, aquifer regeneration infrastructure, a large natural water feature and a recreational trail system in support of achieving LEED Silver and WELL certifications, as well as net-zero carbon-ready status. 

The HCBP site is a five-minute drive from Highway 401 and close to Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo. Members of the local labour market can access it by public transit.

Hanlon Creek Business Park history

The City of Guelph did all of the infrastructure work, including the creation of a road system and development blocks, and then sold the serviced sites for Phase 1 at Hanlon Creek.

The city master-planned the roads for Phase 2, but didn’t do the work. It didn’t own all of the land for this phase either, as there was a family-owned farm that needed to be developed in concert with the municipally owned lands. 

The same concept holds true for the forthcoming Hanlon Creek Phase 3, which Cooper is interested in being a part of, president Don Gordon told RENX.

Cooper and financial partner Montez Corporation purchased land for Phase 2 from the Phelan family in 2007 and the municipality in 2010. Approvals were granted, the site was serviced and development lots were created before the construction of buildings began in 2016.

Cooper and Montez developed four buildings before Montez sold its interest to Summit Industrial Income REIT. The new partners were developing their fourth building on the site when Summit was acquired last February by GIC and Dream Industrial REIT for $5.9 billion.

Smaller Phase 2 sites were sold 

“Along the way, we sold off a couple of small sites that didn't really lend themselves to the types of buildings that Summit and/or Montez were building,” Gordon explained. “So we parsed those small, irregular sites off and we also sold about 19 acres to Co-operators for their new corporate head office.”

The Co-operators office building is under construction and will be completed this year.

Phase 2 of HCBP is now fully leased to tenants including Lynden Logistics, GoodLeaf Farms, OxiCP, PiVAL, Omni Packaging, GoPlus, Fraser Direct, Lane Sales, Brewers Supply Group, Jet Tools, Denso Manufacturing Canada and the College of Veterinarians of Ontario.

Cooper is providing property management services to some of buildings while others are managed by new owners. 

Forthcoming Cooper developments

Oakville-based Cooper is a 118-year-old, family-owned company that provides southern Ontario markets with design/build construction, construction management and industrial, office, institutional and self-storage real estate development services. 

Cooper is also nearing completion of Grand River Business Park West, a new Kitchener industrial development targeting a LEED Silver certification with a net zero carbon-ready design. The speculatively built 363,108-square-foot building on 20 acres at 355 Shirley Dr. features a 40-foot clear interior ceiling height, 50x56-foot bays and a 60-foot staging bay. 

“We're waiting for a swift lease-up,” Cooper vice-president of development and real estate Domenic Natale told RENX.
 
The Grand River Business Park East in Kitchener is also under development. The 26-acre site will feature two buildings totalling up to 440,000 square feet with 40- and 28-foot clear heights, 50x56-foot bays and a 60-foot staging bay. Both are to be built on spec.

Cooper is targeting a LEED Silver certification and to be net-zero carbon-ready by completion in late 2025 or early 2026.  

Cooper is developing a 40-acre site at 7475 McLean Rd. in Puslinch, a Wellington County township surrounding the south end of Guelph.

The spec-built project will feature two 419,250-square-foot buildings with 40-foot clear heights, 41x56-foot bays, a 60-foot staging bay and parking for 73 truck trailers.

A LEED Silver certification and net zero carbon-ready status are being targeted, along with a late 2024 completion date.