A whopping 500 acres of local industrial land listed for sale: ‘Sweet spot’

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An old and very large part of the London region’s industrial history may soon become a big part of its manufacturing future.

More than 200 hectares (500 acres) of industrial land has hit the market, adjacent to the massive Amazon fulfillment centre between London and St. Thomas on the site of the former Ford Talbotville assembly plant. That’s the equivalent to nearly 380 football fields.

The land, owned by Broccolini Construction, is available for large-scale industrial development and would be ideal for possible suppliers to Volkswagen’s electric-vehicle battery plant under construction in St. Thomas, said Randy Fisher, vice-president and broker with CBRE, the commercial realty firm listing the site.

“These are big blocks of industrial land that can potentially accommodate large industrial users, which would provide good employment opportunities,” Fisher said. “This will benefit the entire region. The industrial market is dealing with uncertainty over the possibility of U.S. tariffs . . . but we’re cautiously optimistic our region will thrive.”

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Although the land has been available for sale, servicing rail lands was recently completed. The seller also has finalized plans to ensure “heavy power” of 21 megawatts is available, increasing to 42mw in 2026.

“We’re always looking for new opportunities. The initial focus was on completing Amazon and now that’s done and up and running (so) the focus is on finding users for the balance of the land,” Fisher said.

There is no sale price listed for the site.

It may be an ideal spot for suppliers to the $7-billion Volkswagen/PowerCo plant that will make batteries for electric vehicles when it opens in 2027, Fisher said.  “The entire region is awaiting possible suppliers for the PowerCo gigafactory.”

The City of St. Thomas already has 320 hectares of industrial land to offer suppliers, but the more land, the better, said St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston.

“It’s substantial and when businesses may be deciding on supplying PowerCo, or Amazon or another industry here, they want choice and that’s what this is,” Preston said. “If you search all of Ontario, we’re in the sweet spot right now. Whether you’re shopping for shoes or industrial land, the more choice the better.”

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The property on Sunset Road, between London and St. Thomas is a total of  250ha but 38ha already has been developed for the Amazon fulfillment centre. The remaining 213ha is in two parcels of 150ha and 63ha each, but can be broken into smaller parcels if needed, Fisher said.

The site is also exempt from development charges.

“The site is an ideal location for development as it sits at the intersection of highways 401 and 402, a half-hour from Highway 403 and two hours from Toronto and two U.S. states, Michigan and New York,” states the listing.

Southwold Township has the site zoned for commercial and industrial use.

Broccolini began building the Amazon plant in 2021 and it opened in 2023 with about 1,000 workers.  It is 260,000 square metres (2.8 million square feet) over four storeys. Amazon also has two warehouses in London on Huron Street at Robin’s Hill Road and on Industrial Road. 

Broccolini is a Quebec-based construction and real estate development company that builds for Amazon in Canada. 

The Ford assembly plant closed in 2011 cutting 1,500 jobs after assembling cars on site since 1967. 

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ndebono@postmedia.com

The Amazon Fulfillment Centre

In  Southwold Township, between London and St. Thomas, on the site of the former Ford assembly plant, 11884 Sunset Rd.

• 260,000 square metres (2.8 million sq. ft.) over four floors
• $500 million to build and install machinery
• Capacity to handle up to 750,000 packages a day
• Ships goods across Canada.
• Handles smaller, tote-sized packages; larger items come from a different facility.
• Built in about 14 months by Broccolini Construction
• 750 construction workers on-site during the build.
• Broccolini owns the site and leases it back to Amazon.
• Amazon has two other smaller delivery centres in London that receive items from the fulfillment centre and ship them to customers. Those centres get goods from multiple delivery centres across Canada and not just the local fulfillment centre.

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