A $200-million state-of-the-art warehousing facility — which will be 1.3 million square feet and create about 225 jobs — should open in Innisfil this summer.
On June 19, 2024, provincial and local dignitaries, including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Mayor Lynn Dollin, joined a few dozen representatives of the Denmark-based DSV global transport and logistics company to break ground at the facility’s new site on the southeast corner of Innisfil Beach Road and the 5th Sideroad, in the Innisfil Heights Employment Area.
“I’m just so proud to be here,” Ford said at the time. “We have now become an economic powerhouse around North America. You don’t take money out of people's pockets, you make money on businesses.”
It is the second-largest facility the company has built in Canada to date, and a key cog in its expansion into the Ontario market, said Rob Chanona, DSV Solutions’ Canadian managing director.
“The construction has been progressing right on schedule, despite slightly more rain than expected during the late summer months,” Chanona told InnisfilToday via email on Dec. 20, 2024. “The support from the Town of Innisfil has been instrumental in staying on schedule with the various site planning permits. We expect to commence operations in July 2025 as planned.”
The location was chosen for its seamless access to Highway 400, which will give its clients an option beyond the constricted Greater Toronto Area industrial market. Construction is being handled by the development firm Broccolini.
“The flatness of the floor is essential for the automation we plan on incorporating in our business plans for the building, but there is quite a science behind achieving a truly 'flat' floor,” Chanona explained. “The Broccolini construction team is exceeding our expectations in this specific area.”
A resource from the Concrete Floor Contractors Association he provided states: “Conventional methods of construction are not adequate to produce floor surfaces that are flat or level enough to support the operation of the sophisticated lift trucks in these wire guided, defined traffic, narrow aisle, high rack environments.”
As reported in June, Dollin said that the addition of the DSV warehouse to Innisfil "means more jobs and boosts to our local economy.”
"The town is committed to growth in a responsible and sustainable way — we’re so impressed with DSV’s approach to both of those concepts. By putting a shovel in the ground ... we’re making history as well as shaping our future.”
At the time, the town said the 1,600 acres that comprise Innisfil Heights include “various lot sizes that can accommodate industrial, commercial and tourism-related uses.” Once the area is developed — it is expected to be fully serviced by 2028 — Innisfil Heights has the potential to create more than 16,000 jobs.
