Magna non-move from Aurora a bitter blow to King Township

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 5, 2016
Tim Kelly

It’s not so Magna-ificent in King Township these days.

News late Tuesday that the auto parts giant is not coming to King City in 2018 after all – it just announced it plans to stay now in its Aurora headquarters until 2022 if not longer – must have hit township councillors like a lead pipe.

Or maybe like one of the auto parts Magna was going to produce at its spanking new research centre it was supposed to open at the King Road-Jane Street 105-acre, mega-million dollar site it purchased in spring 2015.

Magna officials, to great fanfare, unveiled drawings for a huge 40-acre complex in King at township council in June 2015 that was originally going to open by the end of 2017. This summer, the company said it would now open the 625-employee 21st century office by the end of 2018.

Now this.

Magna has said in a statement that the company is monitoring macro-economic conditions impacting the automotive industry and will continue evaluating future needs.

There’s no clear, unequivocal statement on behalf of the company that it IS coming to King in 2022. It may, it may not.

It’s a bitter blow to King Township residents and businesses and the goal Mayor Steve Pellegrini had of landing a major corporate headquarters in the township.

There’s nothing to say Magna can’t just hold on to the land it bought in King and wait until the mid-2020s to eventually build there. Or it might turn around and sell the land for a profit, or hope to get other businesses to build on it and act as the leaseholder.

Who knows what Magna’s long-term master plan is? It’s a worldwide multi-national that owns dozens and dozens of properties in countries across the globe.

But it did say clearly it would build its corporate headquarters in King.

We’ll have to just wait and see if that comes to pass in six years’ time.