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Weekly UpdatesA Thunder Bay heritage building has a high-tech future as a home for information technology firms.
The landmark Whalen building plays a huge role in an emerging knowledge-based economy that city economic development chief Steve Demmings wants to help nurture.
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The city's first 'skyscraper' in 1913 will serve as a drawing card to attract technology and back-office support companies as part of a plan to tap into Western Canadian markets and rejuvenate the business district in the former Port Arthur downtown core.
For the last year, the municipality has been working with local fabricators and industrial suppliers to build up the city's image as a service and manufacturing hub for the West. Local companies are looking to bend steel for producers in the Alberta tar sands, uranium and potash miners in Saskatchewan and hydro-electric dam builders in Manitoba and Ontario.
Now there's a secondary opportunity to lure satellite offices that can service those markets at a distance.
Companies like Superior Propane recently expanded their administrative presence in Thunder Bay and now employ close to 100 people.
"Western Canada is ripe for those kinds of opportunities," says Demmings.
And it's not about offering cheaper office space than Calgary, Edmonton or Saskatoon. It's Thunder Bay's own way of addressing the national labour shortage of labour and the huge employee turnover rate in Western Canada.
What works in the city's favour, says Demmings, is a steady stream of talented and skilled young grads coming out of Lakehead University and Confederation College that can work these administrative jobs, such as company accounting and IT.
So why not give these kids and these companies a "dynamic environment" to work in?
The eight-storey Whalen building is a classic neo-gothic designed building, framed in terracotta panels, arched mouldings and roofline turrets. Inside, there are high ceilings and plenty of natural light.
Though the building remains in remarkable shape, it needs to be brought up to 21st century standards with modern fibre optics. Demmings is working on the costs for a technology proposal plan.
The Whalen has such amazing potential that this past summer, he's moved his entire staff across town and taken up residence in the building's second floor.
Certainly, the view is better. Instead of overlooking a food court in a dreary south-end mall, they can gaze across the harbour out toward the Sleeping Giant peninsula.
On the four floors above, Demmings wants to create open concept "mini-pod" space for web developers, software designers, multi-media firms, and branch offices servicing the mining and energy industries.
Re-adapting the Whalen - also known as the PUC building is part of his larger vision to create a modern business and education corridor amidst a fine collection of heritage buildings along Cumberland Street and Red River Road.
The area is already the neighbourhood turf of Thunder Bay's biotechnology and health sciences companies. And Lakehead University bought the historical Port Arthur Collegiate Institute and plans to convert it into a law school.
Demmings says the influx of young people, combined with the Whalen improvements, the thriving performing arts scene at the Magnus Theatre and the millions being spent on the waterfront only two blocks away, should revive the city's entire north end.
Tourism manager Paul Pepe will also have a front row seat to the $126-million Marina Park-Prince Arthur's Landing waterfront redevelopment that will be rolling out over the next two years.
Pepe and his staff followed Demmings from their south and office to take up residence in a former Buchanan Lumber waterfront sales office. The building sits on a rectangular sit of land known as the Pool 6 property, once a grain elevator site. They'll be sharing space with the city's waterfront development team.
"It's really nice place to work out of," says Pepe. "In marketing, we're in the business of being creative and it's a venue that will help us."
A nearby Seaway-draft pier is where they plan to berth Great Lakes cruise ships starting next year. Eleven visits are scheduled in 2009 by the Clelia II, a 100-passenger luxury yacht chartered by New York operator Travel Dynamics.
There's enough space to pull motor coaches next to the dock for passengers to disembark for area day tours. "There's potentially more than 1,100 passengers next year, more than the two visits the (larger cruise ship) Columbus gave us last year."
www.thunderbay.ca
www.visitthunderbay.com
By IAN ROSS
Northern Ontario Business
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