Oxford Builds Sustainable Industrial Campus in Ontario

Oxford Properties has broken ground on the first-phase of 3.3M SF industrial park that will rise on 180 acres of vacant land in Milton, Ontario.

Sustainability will be the hallmark of the $610M James Snow Business Park. The first phase of the project, which will include 14 buildings encompassing 1.55M SF, will install 400K SF of solar photovoltaic arrays.

The solar panels will be part of the base building infrastructure to provide 3.8M kWh of renewable energy annually to occupiers.

The James Snow Business Park is aiming for other ESG-oriented goals, including LEED certification and substantial work to preserve, restore and enhance the local natural heritage system. The park will feature outdoor amenity spaces along an internal trail network that will be connected to Milton’s hundreds of miles of walking trails.

“James Snow Business Park is a bold vision to create a sustainable, best-in-class development in the heart of Milton,” said Jeff Miller, head of industrial at Oxford, in a statement.

“The business park will help strengthen Ontario’s supply chain and adds desperately needed new supply of industrial buildings to the GTA, where the current availability rate sits at below 1%,” he said.

“The substantial capital deployment is in line with our high-conviction thematic investment strategy to build a leading North American industrial business that provides the real estate infrastructure to power supply chains,” Miller added.

Although the first phase of the project is being built speculatively, Oxford said it is installing the solar power arrays to “differentiate” the development from traditional industrial developments by “providing clean energy for its occupants from the very first day of operation.”

Miller said the flexible blueprints for the James Snow Business Park can accommodate occupants ranging from 15K SF to more than 1M SF, with expected uses ranging from light manufacturing, to bulk distribution and logistics, as well as amenities and offices.

The buildings at the park will be “interwoven” with the surrounding greenspace by making use of alternative materials including wood finishes, according to the architects, Denmark’s ak83 and Glenn Piotrowski Architect, an Ontario-based firm.

Investa and Oxford recently announced the completion of their largest green debt transaction to date with the refinancing of Investa Gateway Office’s Syndicated Debt Facility for $1.2B, certified by the Climate Bond Initiative.

Since 2017, Australia-based Investa has cumulatively closed more than $3.4B in green debt, with the IGO transaction taking the firm to 82% green debt across Investa’s core portfolio.

The company has set a goal of 100% green financing across its core funds by 2025.