Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | London’s first office-to-residential project opens London’s first office-to-residential conversion project, a major piece of Mayor Josh Morgan’s downtown housing strategy, is set to officially open on Friday. The former building at 376 Richmond is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open as 376 Lofts. “The whole idea is to innovate,” said Jefferson Huang, the principal at Bluevale Capital Group, the developer who spearheaded the project. “It is special that it happened in under one year. It is proof you can accelerate housing. We have proven it works.” The cherry on top is the affordability piece — studios in this building are going to rent at around $990 per month, with one-bedrooms going for around $1,400, both well below market rate. The $7-million project was completed with around $1.1 million in city contributions and converts more than 18,500 square feet of commercial space to residential use. Occupancy is set to begin next month, the developers said. The upshot: The opening of the project is notable both for being the first conversion project to be completed, but also for the speed at which that happened, for which Huang credits an eager partner in the city. “You have the fastest office conversion in the country in London,” he told The London Free Press. “It is a cooperative city, they expedited permits and there was no waiting.” Early enthusiasm across the country for office conversions has waned somewhat, with developers complaining of logistical and cost challenges associated with the process, but this project may serve as proof-of-concept (and potentially suggests that these conversions work better with smaller, mid-rise buildings, rather than massive office towers). “It is another vacant commercial space that is being brought back. It is exactly what we are focusing on trying to do, bring more residential to the core, more feet to the street,” said Ward 13 Councillor David Ferreira. Read more: London Free Press | 376 Lofts | | | interVal partners with IG Wealth Management Local fintech firm interVal announced a partnership with IG Wealth Management this week that will see IG make use of interVal’s business valuation and growth metric software. The partnership expands and formalizes a relationship that has developed over the past several months. “Over the last year, IG advisors have been providing business clients with direct access to interVal’s industry leading software platform, which leverages artificial intelligence and human expertise to deliver comprehensive business valuation and key business health metrics,” IG Wealth Management said in a press release. “At interVal, our focus has always been on equipping business owners with the insights they need to drive growth and make informed decisions,” said interVal co-founder and CEO Trevor Greenway (pictured, left, with co-founder and CFO Colin Szemenyei). “This partnership with IG Wealth Management represents a significant step in bringing those insights to more business clients across Canada.” The upshot: Financial services firms and banks are starting to embrace nimble fintech startups like interVal (as well as AI-enabled software more generally) more and more these days, and that is extending to small business clientele, including the rapidly growing business succession demographic. interVal’s software platform helps business owners measure, understand and monitor the value and health of their business, and the company has additional partnerships with financial institutions like Libro Credit Union and Canadian Western Bank. “Clients receive an accurate business valuation and tools to uncover what’s driving, or impeding, their business value,” said IG president and CEO Damoni Murchison. “This partnership further cements our commitment to serving business owners and helping them build better financial futures.” Read more: Newswire Canada | | | East end meat processing plant named as source for legionnaires’ outbreak An east-end meat processing plant, Sofina Foods on Trafalgar Street, has been identified as the source of an ongoing legionnaires disease outbreak in London, and has been shut down for a deep clean. The outbreak, which killed four people, was declared over on August 6 but was redeclared this week when 25 more people got sick. “The cooling tower is offline and will remain offline until these additional steps are completed,” said chief safety office at Sofina, Sharon Begley. “We will continue testing to ensure any risk has been eliminated.” Sofina Foods’ cooling tower was one of nine in the city that was identified as having legionella bacteria in an early round of testing and had subsequently produced a negative test earlier in the month. However, Middlesex-London Health Unit officials believe the recent heat waves contributed to more bacterial growth, reigniting the outbreak. Sofina and the MLHU reiterated that the food from the plant is completely safe, and Sofina said that the plant will remain shut down until testing shows the issue has been resolved. The upshot: The good news is that the source of the outbreak has been identified, and it should put an end to two years of sporadic legionnaires’ cases. Some observers say the outbreak should be a bit of a wake-up call to provincial legislators to consider instituting regulations in Ontario around inspection and operation of cooling towers. “There’s significant room for improvement,” said Magnus technical advisor Vincent Brown, speaking with CBC News London. In the past 10 years, some provinces ― notably Quebec and New Brunswick, which had a legionnaires outbreak traced back to a large cannabis production facility in 2019 ― have tightened regulations. In 2022, the Association of Local Public Health Agencies in Ontario asked the government to introduce a mandatory registry and mandate risk management plans for cooling tower operators, but so far the province hasn’t taken up that cause. “I just hope that we pay attention to this a little bit more moving forward,” said Brown. “I think there’s something to be done to actually help … without going overboard. There are some reasonable improvements that can be made in the legislation, I think.” Read more: Canadian Press | London Free Press | | | Major Canada Life Place renovation takes building westward In addition to 376 Lofts, another notable construction project is in full swing, with workers deep in the process of a multi-million renovation of Canada Life Place (CLP). A new scoreboard has already been installed, and renovations have already been completed to some of the concession stands. The current work being done includes some of the more extensive work, including an expansion of the building’s footprint, with a two-storey pavilion being added on the Ridout Street side. “This is helping us keep up with everything going on in the industry,” CLP general manager Kelly Austin told The London Free Press. “I wouldn’t say this arena is considered old, [but] it was time where technology changes and the way people experience things change.” Thanks to those pesky London Knights and their deep Memorial Cup run, construction is proceeding on a bit of a condensed timeline. “If the Knights had gone out in the first round, we would’ve had an extra two months,” said project manager Brian Ohl. “But I’ll take the Knights going to the Memorial Cup any day.” The upshot: There’s a hockey angle to this, too. With a recruitment war developing between the Canadian Hockey League and the NCAA system in the United States, the need to upgrade facilities like the Knights’ home dressing room became more pressing. “I think it helps out recruitment,” said Knights GM Mark Hunter. “It can balance the sheet out a bit because there are teams out there that have real good facilities. It will match what we’re trying to do and create here as a hockey club.” Several parties also noted that touring concerts have grown in size and complexity, and the renovations should offer more capacity in that context. Read more: London Free Press | | | London cashes in for 2024 new home builds While one of our stories in last Friday’s Weekly looked at how London is falling well short of its homebuilding targets for 2025, it’s cashing in on its success in hitting those targets for 2024. Calling London “a perfect example” of their incentive-based funding scheme, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was in town this week to announce nearly $12 million in funding for the city from the province’s Building Faster Fund, which the city earned by hitting 95 per cent of its homebuilding targets last year. “We have ramped up processes,” said Mayor Josh Morgan. “We’re getting housing permitted. We’re removing barriers and red tape to processes. We’re speeding up our timelines and we’re partnering with the province to get things done.” The upshot: As we noted last week, it’s probably unlikely that London will match its housing starts from last year in 2025. Morgan has been making the pitch, along with other municipalities, that the province should be awarding the money based on permits issued (which are within the city’s control) rather than actual starts (which are more market driven). MPP Rob Flack said it’s something he’s considering but prefers to award money based on actual housing starts. “There is a clear demand and supply issue,” he said, adding that “because of these conditions, we have seen the housing market come to standstill.” Strictly speaking, though, that standstill has a lot to do with the fact that homebuilders are struggling to move their existing supply, not because of an inherent undersupply. Separately this week, homebuilder Foxwood Homes unveiled an incentive program that offered to cover up to $12,500 of property tax and utilities costs for new buyers. They’re not alone, and many builders are experiencing a lack of demand. “You are seeing these kinds of incentives all across southern Ontario, and it is absolutely because the market has become more challenging,” said housing supply expert and Ivey Business School prof Mike Moffatt. Read more: CBC News London | CTV News London | | | Province investing to train London skilled trades Continuing their tour of the city, the provincial government made a stop at a construction site on Pond Mills Road to announce a $2.6 million investment in skilled trades training for London-area workers. “By investing in training programs in London, we’re protecting Ontario workers by helping them get the skills they need to land better jobs and bigger paycheques,” said Premier Doug Ford. Two local organizations will receive funding: the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 120 will receive nearly $700,000 to train 91 workers for construction jobs, and Literacy Link South Central will receive nearly $2 million for their Apprenticeship Readiness Inventory and Skills Evaluation program and their Step Up and Succeed: Foundational Skill Building for the Skilled Trades program. “This funding will go help ensure our apprentices and journeypersons remain some of the highest skilled electricians in the country,” said John Gibson, Business Manager of IBEW Local 120. The upshot: There is a long-established shortage of trade workers, with claims made that for every seven trade workers leaving the industry, only one is being hired in, so efforts to boost recruitment have been top of mind for the industry for a couple years now. However, there are new headwinds to consider, especially the tariff situation. David Piccini, minister of labour, immigration, training and skills development, said the provincial government “is standing shoulder to shoulder with Ontario’s workers to make sure they are protected in the face of global economic uncertainty.” But there are question marks around the established narrative that the trades are dying for new workers. Some younger tradespeople are reporting major challenges in finding employers willing to take on apprentices, and others have noted that the slowdown in construction projects has left many existing workers out of jobs. “We received 506 applicants and took 34,” said an IBEW business manager in Windsor, of the state of apprenticeships. Some would-be apprentices are hoping to see the province change apprenticeship ratios to allow for journeypersons to take on more apprentices at one time. Read more: CTV News London | | | Dispatch: August 29, 2025 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |