Business View Magazine September 2018

304 305 for downtown events. Jason Fox, Truro Director of Planning & Development, reports, “We have lots of new restaurants and shops starting up; we’re encouraging sidewalk cafes to activate the streets. Basically, the town is doing as much as we can to support entrepreneurialism, in terms of reducing red tape.” The Perennia Centre, a division of Dalhousie University is an R&D wing for product develop- ment. If you have an idea but not the expertise, they will walk you through it and provide incu- bator facilities to grow a company until you can move it into your own facility. That’s been a real plus in encouraging product developers to stay in the local area. A credit to Truro town staff, the municipal strategic plan and land use bylaw is encouraging more residential growth downtown. New apart- ment complex development agreements have passed–one property with 42 apartments is now fully occupied. The second phase has a waiting list of 40 tenants, so construction will likely start in the spring. On Queen Street, another developer has a multi-unit apartment complex in the works. When those two are done, there could be about 500 new units downtown. Truro has many large historical homes that have become unmanage- able for their aging owners, resulting in a need for high-quality apartments for younger and older residents. The first building that went up was mostly 50-plus residents, while the Walker Lofts, done a few years ago, attracted a more youthful group. Fox explains, “In terms of where people work, we are a regional center, strategically located in the middle of the province, as well as the Mari- time Provinces of New Brunswick, P.E.I., and Nova Scotia. One and half million people are central to that market.We also function as a transporta- tion center and we take advantage of that. Major TRURO, NOVA SCOTIA highways and rail lines run through the commu- nity, so many businesses do distribution, trucking, and warehousing from here. As a regional center, we also have a lot of government and profession- al services, including legal, and healthcare; the local hospital is a large employer.We’re also an agricultural service center –Dalhousie University Agriculture has their campus here and we provide animal crop research, etc., related to future food demands.We’re also an education center with the Nova Scotia Community College as well. So, we’re an important regional center with a great deal of business and economic activity.” Just outside of town is the regional distribution center for Sobey’s, Home Hardware distribution and Tim Hortons has a major distribution facil- ity that’s expanding. Kent Homes, and Kohltech Windows are also there. Truro’s industrial park is full and is expanding into the next stage. Among the 80 existing companies in the park are: Tan- dus Flooring, Andrés Wine, Scotsburn Ice Cream, and Intertape Polymer. Truro Herbal – a marijua- na facility–will open in late fall. And, of course, Truro is the home of Stanfield’s Underwear. Dolter explains, “It’s a good mix of employment opportu- nities.We’re looking for more young professionals to come work for some of these firms. A direction of Council has been to change Truro’s image. It isn’t a sleepy little town; it’s an attractive, vibrant community with a huge volunteer base -a much different place than it was five to ten years ago.” Truro is a popular stopover town for tourists travelling to Halifax and Cape Breton. They love the historic architecture, and the Heritage Society does a great job with protection and heritage status of those homes. Sports tourism, such as the Pinty’s Grand Slam Curling events, also draw large crowds. Truro and the city of Halifax are now bid- ding for the 2020 World Women’s Hockey Cham- pionship. The town is currently working on a new long-term project with Colchester County on the former Paliser Restaurant property as a destina- tion point. This significant, $20 million tourism project is part of the world-famous tidal bore.