$100M trade centre means 800 jobs for Stouffville

Premier announces Main Street project while in China

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 31, 2014
By Jim Mason

Premier Kathleen Wynne made it official today on the other side of the world.

Stouffville is getting its trading centre after all. The premier made the annoucement during a trade mission to China today.

Yiwu North America Corporation announced a $100-million investment to establish a new trading centre, she said. The location, according to the company's website, is the former Southwire plant on Main Street.

A sign announcing the project was erected on the property this week.

The centre will serve as a hub for international manufacturers and distributors to market their products in North America. The first phase of the project is expected to create 800 jobs, Wynne said.

A trade centre, originally planned for Hoover Park Drive and Hwy. 48, was a major issue during this fall's municipal election campaign.

Some candidates expressed concerns around everything from traffic to the hiring of migrant workers. Other politicians downplayed the effect on the community.

Zoning changes made earlier this year permit wholesale trading on the property.

"Faced with the ever increasing reforms and pressures of a global economy, a new wave of Yiwu businesses are leveraging the opportunities provided by China’s Go Global strategies to become more intimately connected to their international buyers," a message on the company's website reads.

"North America Yiwu Trading Centre will become a new satellite trade and wholesale platform for a large cluster of established and new merchants to provide efficient, convenient, and more accessible service to a direct network of major international cities including: New York, Chicago, and Toronto."

You can buy in.

"This will be a huge project with hotels, warehouse etc other than this trading centre," Century 21 sales rep Peter Lai said online. "But the units in this trading centre cannot do the retail business as it is restricted to wholesale concept."

Units are selling for $123,990.

“Ontario has built great momentum on this mission that we are committed to sustaining," Wynne said. "The agreements signed today signal a strong vote of confidence in what Ontario has to offer and will help create jobs and opportunity across our province.”

For more on the Stouffville project, go to: yiwunorthamerica.com/