Economic Fail – Cornwall isn’t on the Radar – Aquaworld Developer Stefano Ferrante 080818

Cornwall Ontario –   It seems that failure isn’t an issue at City Hall in Cornwall.   An empty Loblaws site for over two years; no waterfront development,and now confirmation that Cornwall was never in the running for the $115 million dollar Aquaworld Water Park development that is working through the process in nearby Prescott Ontario.

[bs-quote quote=”Cornwall wasn’t on our radar.” style=”style-14″ align=”center” author_name=”Stefano Ferrante” author_job=”Aquaworld Developer”][/bs-quote]

Mr. Ferrante was kind enough to grant us a few moments for an interview where he also stated his Eastbound 401 development stops at Morrisburg.  Ironically the Loblaws site is about the same size as the lands being developed for Aquaworld.

It appears that Cornwall wasn’t in the running for the  Giant Tiger or Amazon distribution centres either.

The economic tag team of Mark Boileau and Bob Peters also were responsible for the embarrassment of the Loblaws DC that never happened.

Loblaws had a two year option on a 121 acre property that the city then developed some infrastructure in, and either putting the cart before the horse, or doing Alyssa Blais’ new boss a favor, purchased another 250 acres for its industrial park.

The city returned a whopping 90% of Loblaws $2.1 million dollars, and the property has been on the market now for over two years while two other DC’s chose other communities.

In fact Mr. Peters and CAO Maureen Adams have refused to answer if Cornwall even reached out to compete for either the GT or Amazon projects?

And in the interim both Boileau and Peters saw their responsibility and salaries rise at City Hall.

You just can’t make this up.

Congrats to Prescott and Mr. Ferrante on Aquaworld, and maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a change at Economic Development here in Cornwall?

What do you think dear CFN viewers?  You can post your comments below.




4 Comments

  1. Honestly Jamie, this city is doomed! Thank goodness I work in a spot in Cornwall that just keeps pumping out product and ships everywhere in the world and business is booming! Honestly this city is a joke and has been for a number of years! Nothing will change and wait until the MPAC lawsuit fails! Apathy has set in for a lot of residents. I live in South Glengarry, thank goodness for that!

  2. There is some local resistance to the park being built west of Prescott. It’s a rural/residential area.

  3. I wish them luck. With so many so close it’ll be a struggle.

  4. Some think “build it and they will come and my pockets will be full of profits.” Nope, too many options actually is not a good thing in some cases. I counted 8 within a 1½ hr drive of Cornwall. And a new one is opening in Richmond, just outside Ottawa.

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