A new direction for the vacant Budd Plant property in Kitchener has been announced.
The owners of the lot say a 35,000 square foot medical centre, featuring doctor’s offices, specialists, and state of the art imaging, will be coming to the northern part of the industrial park.
The plans were announced at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning.
For 10 years, the parcel of land has sat vacant on the south end of the city.
It was formerly Budd Site, but later became Kitchener Frame.
The Ball family, who own the property, say they originally wanted to rezone the land to commercial in order to expedite the redevelopment.
Kitchener council fought the rezoning and says the city still needs the area to maintain industrial needs.
Years later, a compromise was made.
“A medical centre is needed badly in south Kitchener,” said Jody Ball, president of Homer Watson Medical Corporation. “There are thousands of residents in the area that don’t have primary care physicians and we’re here to help alleviate the stress.”
The Ball family says the medical centre will be open and operation in 12 months. They plan to break ground on a second building in six months.
