Business continues to boom across the city, with a flurry of new developments and expansions opened or announced in recent months. Pictured are representatives from UPS Canada, Mayor Andrea Horwath (second from right), and MPP Donna Skelly (right), May 2, 2023. Photo credit: Twitter/Donna Skelly
Two companies, UPS Canada and Fusion Pharmaceuticals, are set for large expansions in the City of Hamilton.
On May 2, UPS Canada held a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of construction for their new $65-million warehouse facility on Glover Road on the East Mountain.
Officials hope to have the facility operating by the end of 2024. It is expected that the development will create at least 100 new jobs with UPS.
The company already has a facility at the nearby Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope.
There are a number of other companies that have recently set up or have plans to develop in the Glover Road area in what is part of the Red Hill Business Park.
More specifically, the area where UPS is building is part of the southern section of the business park, located just south of Rymal Road. It runs east to west from Trinity Church Road to just west of Nebo Road.
Swedish company Ikea, known as the largest furniture retailer in the world, recently bought 65 acres of land at 212 Glover Road near Twenty Road East in July 2022 hoping to build a fulfillment centre.
Ikea’s plans, however, are in the very early stages.
The new UPS building follows a growing trend on Hamilton Mountain.
Strategically located near Hamilton International Airport, the US-Canada border, and multiple highways, the area has seen the opening of a large new Amazon facility and a multi-million-dollar DHL shipping facility in recent months and will no doubt continue to grow.
Also on May 2, Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc, a Hamilton-based biotech company that specializes in treating cancer, announced a new radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facility inside McMaster Innovation Park on Longwood Road South near Aberdeen Avenue.
The company was founded in 2015 by Dr. John Valliant who serves as CEO and also teaches chemistry at McMaster University.
The group works on how to more precisely target cancer cells with radiation.
They are self-described as “a clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing next-generation radiopharmaceuticals as precision medicines” that “connects alpha particle-emitting isotopes to various targeting molecules to selectively deliver the alpha-emitting payloads to tumours.”
The manufacturing facility will produce Targeted Alpha Therapies (TATs).
A total of 50 jobs are expected to be created and it aims to be fully operational by 2024.
The company already has a presence at McMaster Business Park. The new facility is located adjacent to the company’s research and development labs and “has clinical and commercial manufacturing scale capabilities.”
The new manufacturing facility is part of a 15-year lease agreement with McMaster University. It is expected to produce more than 100,000 doses of TATs per year at full capacity.
Fusion’s Chief Technology Officer Dr. Eric Burak commented on the facility opening, saying that “with the complexity of just-in-time manufacturing for radiopharmaceuticals, diversification in supply chain and redundancy in production is vital to ensuring reliable patient access to therapy.”
“Coupled with our previous investments in actinium supply, this new facility provides further control for our entire supply chain to meet the growing patient demand for targeted alpha therapies,” Burak continued.
The opening of the new Fusion Pharmaceuticals manufacturing facility continues yet another trend where the City of Hamilton has developed into a major hub for the healthcare and life sciences sectors.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
