Blackfalds industrial park bustles

BLACKFALDS — Two years ago, Schlumberger Canada appeared poised to establish an administrative centre in Blackfalds — a move that would have brought hundreds of jobs to town.

The oilfield services giant never came, but the town appears to be doing just fine — thanks to the pending arrival of two other big industrial companies.

Cord WorleyParsons and Wajax Industries Ltd. have both confirmed that they will be locating operations in Blackfalds Industrial Park on the south side of town.

Brad Van de Veen, general manager with Cord WorleyParsons, said his company expects to be operational by Aug. 1, with an office complex and storage trailers among the facilities on its 15-acre site.

A division of WorleyParsons Canada, Cord WorleyParsons, will operate a modularization and fabrication facility at Blackfalds.

It will supply Alberta’s oilfield and gas industry, said Van de Veen.

“It’s typically making modulars for the heavy oilsands.”

The company’s local payroll is expected to reach about 150, he said, with 50 to 75 contract workers in addition to that.

Van de Veen said Cord WorleyParsons is already active in Central Alberta, with a number of key personnel — including himself — living in the area. Setting up a shop in Central Alberta should help the company attract skilled labour from this region.

“We currently have a modular facility in Edmonton, but the key for the Red Deer and Central Alberta area is the draw of the people there — the tradespeople.”

Based in Australia but active throughout the world, WorleyParsons provides project services to the hydrocarbons, power, minerals and metals, and infrastructure industries, among others.

Wajax Industries will operate out of a 31,000-square-foot building on approximately six acres of leased land in Blackfalds Industrial Park.

The company, which dates back 150 years, is a multi-line distributor of heavy equipment and serves the forestry, construction, oil and gas, mining, transportation, materials handling, pipeline and other industries.

Headquartered in Edmonton, Wajax has 30 branches in Canada — including in Calgary, Grand Prairie and Fort McMurray.

Shanna Small, Wajax’s national marketing manager, said the Blackfalds shop will allow the company to “bridge the gap” between Calgary and Edmonton.

“It’s going to be our largest facility in Western Canada,” she said, adding that the shop is expected to employ about 50 at the outset.

Staff are currently being recruited.

Small said the Blackfalds facility will be big enough to service equipment from Wajax’s cranes division, and could help service markets as far away as British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

A ground-breaking ceremony is planned for August, and the shop should be open by next spring, she said.

Blackfalds Industrial Park is being developed by Blackfalds Industrial Park Inc., a subsidiary of Calgary-based Octagon Properties Group Ltd.

The park consists of about 65 acres spread over 18 lots on the northeast corner of Hwy 2A and Secondary Hwy 597.

Cord WorleyParsons and Wajax are using four and two lots respectively, and a seventh has been purchased by a Calgary developer, said Grant Schell, vice-president of Octagon.

He added that a number of lots, ranging in size from about two to 13.5 acres, remain available for sale or lease.

Schell said interest in the property picked up after groundwork started this spring.

Water and sewer lines are now in, electrical and natural gas services should be in place by the fall, and roadways will be asphalted next spring.

Additional information about Blackfalds Industrial Park can be found online at www.skycap.ca.

Contact Harley Richards at hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com