The Town approved a site plan for an industrial development put forward by Higgins Development Partners.

Council's community affairs and planning committee approved the plan on Monday. Committee members heard the company plans to construct six buildings on Harwood Avenue, north of the Sentinel Self-Storage site. The six buildings would total more than 647,000 square feet (60,132 square metres).

The first building would be almost 102,000 sq. ft. (about 9,500 sq. m.).

Construction of the first building would be completed by early next year, said Gary Muller, the Town's planning manager.

Higgins bought 47 acres from O'Shanter Developments, which had tried to have the land converted to residential use. The Ontario Municipal Board supported O'Shanter, but the Town took the matter to court where the OMB decision was set aside.

Ajax has fought to retain land that's designated for employment purposes.

"We're looking forward to this development proceeding," said Delis Lus, senior vice-president of Higgins.

The "goal is not to attract 24-hour operations," but rather industrial uses operating from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., he said. "It won't be self-storage."

The first building is being constructed on "speculation," Mr. Lus said, meaning Higgins doesn't yet have a buyer or tenant.

"It will be clean use as opposed to a heavy industrial use."

The buildings could be leased or sold, he said. "Our program allows us to do both. To date, 75 per cent of the interest is to purchase."

He couldn't estimate the number of jobs that could be created by the development, Mr. Muller said. "It depends on the usage. It's difficult to speculate at this point."

"The residents to the west are quite excited about this," said Ward 2 local Councillor Renrick Ashby.

"I'm very pleased to see this brought forward. We all know the struggle we had with this. This battle shows there is a market for employment lands," said Mayor Steve Parish.

Higgins will be "motivated" to market its properties, the mayor said.

"All of council looks forward to seeing the buildings built."

"I'm grateful, after 17 years, something is happening in the area. I'm quite excited," said Wards 1 and 2 Regional Councillor Scott Crawford.

"I hope this has a domino effect and we see more employment development in the future," Coun. Crawford said.