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Business leads for Peterborough airport ongoing following trip to British air show
September 30, 2024 By Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, Local Journalism Initiative, The Peterborough Examiner
A meeting of the Airport Strategic Initiatives Advisory Committee Thursday morning outlined the work that airport staff and Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development (PKED) have been undertaking to attract businesses and investment to the Peterborough Airport.
Issues of available employment lands and the agreements between the county and the City of Peterborough weighed heavily on the meeting’s proceedings, as members of the committee sought clarity on the nature of ongoing discussions with businesses interested in setting up at the airport
The focus of the meeting was a review of a trip to England to attend the Farnborough Airshow, a biennial international event in July that attracted 1,500 exhibitors from 48 countries and which, according to PKED, generated 11 leads that are still being actively pursued.
Jamey Coughlin, PKED’s director of business attraction, retention and expansion added that during his time at Farnborough, he was able to get a sense of what Peterborough offered potential investors, emphasizing the fact that the research and development companies are not competing with passenger flights for air space.
“We have space, we have the ability to take off and land, we have connections to educational institutions, and we are in some ways a blank slate,” Coughlin added.
Mayor Jeff Leal inquired as to the space that would be required by some of these companies should they decide to set up in the Peterborough area.
In response, Coughlin outlined that at least one unnamed company PKED and the airport are currently engaged with would require approximately five to 10 acres of land to build a 100,000-square-foot facility.
However, another dimension of business attraction is the need to attract and retain hundreds of skilled employees to the area
“It’s about workforce,” Coughlin said.
A further agenda item outlined three potential, and again unnamed, businesses that the airport is currently in talks with.
These investment leads include a flight training unit, commercial hangar development, and an energy production company, all three of whom are looking to sign leases and contracts in the next one to two years, according to the report presented to the committee.
Committee member Doug Armstrong later remarked that he had concerns about ensuring that the companies in question align with the current tenants’ needs and the interests of the airport’s space, noting that the airport is not a “real estate development company.”
As the city and county turn toward in-house economic development offices in 2025, Armstrong also expressed his reservation about the possibility of closing these prospective deals past once PKED is dissolved.
“I don’t know how you’re going to sell this stuff to anybody after Jan. 1 with your new economic development models,” he said.
Cavan-Monaghan Township councillor Matthew Graham inquired as to the status of an agreement between the city and county regarding the airport. The lack of updated agreement, he noted, has been an ongoing issues for nearly two years and has lead to “significant ambiguity” in the ways the city and county have worked together on issues related to the airport.
“We need a more specific and mature agreement,” Graham said.
In response, Jasbir Raina, chief administrative officer for the city, noted that this matter falls under the portfolio of the municipal operations commissioner, which has recently been filled by Ilmar Simanovskis who will be starting in the position on Oct. 15.
“If you look from our perspective, it’s it is business as usual,” Raina said, noting that discussions would continue on the matter “with a sense of urgency.”
In response, Graham stated that while he appreciates the city’s position of needing to hire the commissioner, “business as usual has not been adhered to.”