Plans for a new industrial park west of Kamloops at the junction of the Trans-Canada and Coquihalla highways are a step closer to reality following rezoning of the site on July 29.
Kamloops city council approved rezoning of the 190-acre site to light industrial use from agriculture and future development, setting the stage for Comet Industries Ltd. to proceed with the Iron Mask Industrial Park.
The park will offer 140 acres in a market that had just 112 acres of zoned industrial land at the last survey in 2022 – enough to last through 2030 at current demand levels.
“There is significant demand for light industrial land in the Kamloops area,” said Mike O’Reilly, president of Comet Industries Ltd. and a Kamloops city councillor. “There are a lot of local companies that have been looking to grow and expand their businesses in Kamloops, but this will give them a new place to grow their businesses.”
The park will be developed in phases, with the first phase including seven lots ranging from approximately one to five acres.
A former mine site, site prep began in May 2024 in anticipation of a smooth approvals process and sales beginning this fall.
“We’ve gone through environmental [processes] and remediation and cleaned up the site,” O’Reilly said.
Comet has owned the land for 55 years. It made the decision to move ahead with development about five years ago, following the development in 2018 of a strategy for industrial lands in the area .
The city’s Southwest Sector Industrial Land Strategy called for the use of development cost charges to support servicing of properties in the area.
“That was a big component of this project being able to happen,” O’Reilly said, noting that this was a big barrier to bring new industrial space in the city online.
“The prices never actually made the projects viable,” he said. “City of Kamloops agreed with that, and helped provide servicing not just to our site but to the entire southwest of Kamloops, identifying it as an area that’s going to grow the city.”
The project will also diversify the tax base in Kamloops, as well as creating valuable jobs space.
“Our residential has been growing for the better part of a decade now, but what hasn’t been able to match or keep up has been our business base or industry base,” O’Reilly said. “Now we will have commercial and industrial growth.”
But not yet. Pre-sales won’t begin until later this year, said Cushman & Wakefield vice-president Blake Gozda, an industrial specialist who is handling the project in partnership with Brendan Shaw of Brendan Shaw Real Estate in Kamloops.
Gozda said infrastructure-related contractors, distributors and other companies are seeking space, particularly given the strategic location of Kamloops at the juncture of the province’s major rail lines and highways.
With the announcement July 23 from Teck Resources Ltd. that it will be spending upwards of $2.4 billion to extend the life of the Highland Valley Copper mine, 50 kilometres southwest of Kamloops, Gozda expects demand for space to be strong.
Teck’s investment will see Highland Valley, Canada’s largest copper mine, remain in production through 2046.
“There’s a number of mining-related companies that are based in Kamloops,” Gozda said. “This will be an opportunity for occupiers looking to grow or relocate into more efficient space.”
