Tag: Business

Starbucks Cobourg – Now Hiring

John Draper

Last November, it was announced that Starbucks was coming to Cobourg.  They will occupy a store (officially a “coffeehouse”) on the Mall property with a frontage on Elgin (County Road 2).  Included is a drive thru plus an indoor space.  Construction was delayed a bit by the pandemic and they did not make any public statements on the matter so there was speculation that maybe they changed their mind.  But no, they are now hiring.  There are two positions advertised on Workopolis – see the links below.  The jobs are entry levels but hourly pay is a little above minimum wage and unusually, there are fairly generous benefits (see below) plus perks like training to learn all about coffee and… Read complete articleStarbucks Cobourg – Now Hiring

New Employer Coming to Lucas Point

John Draper

A company called Audcomp is an IT company that also invests in Real Estate and they have offered to buy about 3 acres of land in Lucas Point Industrial Park at the north west corner of Dodge and Thompson Streets for $40,000 per acre.  Their offer was accepted by Cobourg Council at their C.O.W. meeting on Monday night, 29 March (subject to ratification at their regular Council meeting next week – Update:  It was ratified).   Audcomp plan to construct a building of approximately 8,000 ft2 to 14,000 ft2 to accommodate their tenant, Davey Tree of Canada who plan a National Distribution/Logistics Centre for their Canadian operations.   They are a US based company and plan more than 50 new local jobs… Read complete articleNew Employer Coming to Lucas Point

Update on FSD Pharma and Kraft Building

John Draper

The company that bought the old Kraft building had big plans at first.  They wanted to be the biggest grower of Marijuana plants in Canada and they floated their shares under the ticker HUGE.  But in July 2020, they announced that they would be giving up on that idea and selling their Cobourg facility with an asking price of $19M.  They moved out and are now based in Toronto.  Work is now focused on developing medications and when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, they aimed at using Cannabis compounds for its treatment.  Their latest announcement is that they have a licence agreement with an Italian company to “develop U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approved veterinary drugs for the treatment of… Read complete articleUpdate on FSD Pharma and Kraft Building

First Cannabis Store opens in Cobourg

John Draper

In January 2019, Cobourg Council decided to allow Cannabis stores in the Town and now the first one has opened at 38 King Street West.  The three owners already have a store in Kingston and they plan one in Campbellford. There are three others waiting to be approved – two downtown and one on Strathy Road.  If there are any others, they have not officially applied for a licence.  See the list below. Two of the other store applicants also have multiple stores and web sites.  Given the approx. eight existing stores in Roseneath, it’s not clear if there will be enough business for all stores to operate or even if the other applicants will actually open.  But Mary J’s… Read complete articleFirst Cannabis Store opens in Cobourg

Council Approves Re-zoning of Woodlawn Property

John Draper

Last October, Council was advised that the new owners of the Woodlawn had applied for re-zoning to allow its use as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.  At Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole Council meeting, the results of the public meeting were presented and Council was asked to approve re-zoning to allow the project to continue.  But first, three of the seven members of Council declared conflicts because they owned nearby properties (Councillors Darling and Chorley) or worked for a company that does business with the owners (Councillor Burchat).  This left four councillors to make the decision.  Ryan Guetter of Weston Consulting represented the owners and provided two documents with responses to questions asked at the public meeting in November. … Read complete articleCouncil Approves Re-zoning of Woodlawn Property

Motel Plans Expansion

John Draper

The Holiday Inn Hotel planned up near the Home Depot is still stuck in the planning stage but another hotel (actually motel) has now applied for Site Plan approval to add a 50 room expansion to their existing 16 rooms.  The budget motel at 1144 Division Street was originally called Motel 401 but after a scandal involving the owner a few years ago, there was a change of owner and a name change to Studio One.   The current Motel is a single story building facing south and facing a park-like strip of land.  The expansion will occupy that green-space and will be three storeys.  The fact that there is this application to expand has to tell us that the owner… Read complete articleMotel Plans Expansion

Council Asked to Approve Land Sale

John Draper

A growing business wants to come to Cobourg – Brock Street Brewery wants to buy four acres in Lucas Point Industrial Park to build a canning plant.  It will can ready to drink vodka soda’s and gin cocktails and possibly also its current beer product.  Based in Whitby, they were founded in April 2015 and have been growing fast. Subject to approval of their building plans by Cobourg’s Planning Department, they want to initially build a 12,000 sq. ft. packaging facility that would be staffed by 25 to 35 employees.  They expect a year later to expand in phases 2 and 3 by 18,000 sq. ft. then add two more buildings of 25,000 sq. ft. and 10,000 sq. ft. which… Read complete articleCouncil Asked to Approve Land Sale

Second Street Development on hold

John Draper

In 2017, when there was a lot of talk about vitalizing the downtown, it was proposed to spend $1.5M on a multi purpose square behind Victoria Hall.  Around the same time, a developer wanted to build “Live and Work” Condos on the “Quigley” lot across the road at 202 Second Street.  However, the square depended on Provincial or Federal money which was not forthcoming so it was put on hold. Then the Farmers’ Market moved across Albert Street to Rotary Park and the Condos were shelved (more details on these below). The owner tried to sell the lot for more than $2M and meanwhile the empty lot was leased to the Town on a month to month basis for $2500… Read complete articleSecond Street Development on hold

Starbucks coming to Cobourg

John Draper

The famous coffee shop originally planned to come here in 2008 but the financial crisis caused them to put that on hold.  But now they plan to go into the new plaza at the Mall that is currently being constructed.  Lydia Smith raised the subject with Council and Councillor Nicole Beatty who is the Coordinator for Planning said that “it’s been publicly presented that a Starbucks is proposed as a potential business to occupy one of the storefronts being constructed as part of the new exterior building at Northumberland Mall.”  She also provided the plan showing the location – see image below.  Over the past few months, there has been a lot of work at the Mall – a rework… Read complete articleStarbucks coming to Cobourg

Heritage Group Contributes to Vic Hall Maintenance

John Draper

Until today, I had not heard of the  “Victoria Hall Heritage Maintenance Trust Fund”.  That’s not the Architectural Conservancy group nor the Victoria Hall Volunteers.  It’s a trust fund dedicated to preserving Victoria Hall and today they donated $10,000 to the Town to “aid in the restoration and refurbishment of the parapet and front pillars at the King St. entrance”. If you have ventured Downtown recently, you might have seen work being done at the front entrance of Victoria Hall.  In 2017 they paid $5000 towards the work done to spell out what needed to be done – see Links below for Restoration requirements drawings. In June this year, Council approved a tender for the work from Colonial Building Restoration… Read complete articleHeritage Group Contributes to Vic Hall Maintenance