Major housing announcement for Iroquois Falls

Christmas came early in Iroquois Falls this week.

The mayor held a news conference alongside Due North, as the company announced its plans to open a new, state-of-the-art housing factory that will lead to the creation of 150 jobs.

The affordable housing project will also include approximately 150 mixed use multi-family dwelling units that will be built on vacant land behind Calvert Street.

"It's going to build modular homes," said Mayor Tory Delaurier. "This is huge for our community. It's the biggest announcement since the mill was created over 100 years ago."

Delaurier said the mill closed eight years ago, so they saw this as an opportunity to bring new industry into town.

"They'll be our anchor tenant for the new industrial park we're looking at producing," said Delaurier.

He's hoping they will be able to start construction as soon as the spring.

"We have no industry in Iroquois Falls right now, so this will help with our tax base and our jobs,” Delaurier said.

“Right now our tax base isn't that healthy because it's mostly residential but having this new industry come to town, this subdivision, it'll help to offset our taxes in the near future, to help out towards roads, our arena and infrastructure in general.”

The community’s tax base currently is mostly residential. They're hoping to attract new residents to come into their community. There is also a hope the project will lead to economic spinoffs, leading to the addition of more companies.

The mayor said he plans to go to senior levels of government for additional funding.

"It's an historic day, we've been working on this for over a year, so they say it's a good start to a new term," Delaurier said.

Once the factory is complete and operating at full capacity, Due North Housing said it will look to open other factories.