NS: Sydney commercial park gets $1M loan

[SYDNEY NS] — Nova Scotia has approved a $1-million loan to Harbourside Commercial Park, a Crown corporation that will gain control of the remediated Sydney Steel properties.

The loan, from the province’s Industrial Expansion Fund, will allow Harbourside to purchase land from Sysco to develop phase two of the marine park.

“The Harbourside Commercial Park is a key driver for economic development in Cape Breton Regional Municipality,” said Percy Paris, Minister of Economic and Rural Development, in a media release, Thursday. “Since the marine park opened in 2007, it has attracted 18 new businesses, created jobs and lead to improvements in roadways and other local infrastructure.”

Harbourside Commercial Park Inc. was established by the province in August 2006 to manage commercial development of remediated areas of the former steel plant site.

In 2007, the province announced $10 million in financing to Harbourside to purchase a portion of Sysco assets, Sydney Pier and to build and market the business park.

Since then, tenants such as Protocase, a design and manufacturing company for the electronics industry, have brought their business to the new space. Protocase customers include NASA, Boeing, Google, Microsoft and Apple.