Weekly Regional Business Intelligence | | | Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | | | Vianode to build graphite factory in St. Thomas Norwegian synthetic graphite manufacturer Vianode announced that it would locate its first North American plant in St. Thomas, near the under-construction PowerCo plant. The facility, called Via Two (Via One has been operating in Herøya, Norway, since 2024) will produce synthetic graphite for use in EV batteries and represents a nearly $2-billion investment in the region. “This is the exact business we want here,” Sean Dyke, CEO of the St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation, told The London Free Press. Vianode officials said they chose St. Thomas specifically because of its “pool of skilled talent, world-class infrastructure, and a low-carbon electricity grid, all close to our customers.” Construction work is starting on the plant, and initial estimates are that the plant will create around 300 jobs. The upshot: There’s a bit of an unusual dynamic in that Vianode is a GM supplier, and not a VW/PowerCo supplier. How much the proximity to CAMI, which was until recently was set to produce its own EV batteries, weighed into Vianode’s decision to set up shop in St. Thomas is anyone’s guess, but surely they can’t have been pleased to know that their biggest customer is mothballing its marquee Canadian EV project. Support from both the federal government and the province of Ontario also appears to have influenced the decision. “Canada is proud to support Vianode in advancing critical mineral development that aligns with our national priorities and international commitments,” said Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hogdson. Read more: CTV News London | London Free Press | | | Average home price takes a big hit in October According to the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR), which released data for home sales in the month of October this week, a total of 607 homes exchanged hands in the region (the LSTAR catchment area also takes in Strathroy, St. Thomas and portions of Middlesex and Elgin counties), an 8.7 per cent decline compared to sales in October of 2024. On the supply side, a total of 1,458 new properties entered the market in October, a 7.6 per cent hike from the same period a year ago. Active listings (a total of all listing) for the month sat at 3,130, a 17.4 per cent hike from the same period a year prior. And while listing are still far outpacing sales, the sales-to-new-listing ratio (a metric measuring market balance by dividing the number of homes sold by the number of new homes listed in a given period, expressed as a percentage) sat at 41.6 per cent in October, considerably lower than the 49.1 per cent recorded last October, but a marked gain from the 31.4 per cent recorded last month. “Consumer confidence seems to be growing, and the latest interest rate cut from the Bank of Canada may help fuel further activity in the marketplace,” said Dale Marsh, 2025 LSTAR chair. “Inventory is at its highest level in the last 10 years, with more than five months in the LSTAR region.” The upshot: Of particular interest to both homebuyers and sellers these days is the average selling price. It had been holding relatively steady through the summer months despite a growing inventory of homes for sale, but in September dipped over two per cent to $622,805, and in October fell considerably further to $605,560. As London Inc. real estate analyst Marcus Plowright pointed out in his On the House column this week, the local real estate market is in the throes of a correction. “The average home price in the London region has fallen from $651,000 in August to $605,000 today,” he stated. “In 60 days, the average price has fallen seven per cent, or $46,000. That is historically significant.” So, where are we going from here? “Growing unemployment, reduced immigration and deadlocked trade relations all suggest things could get worse and stay depressed for quite some time,” said Plowright. “It’s reasonable to assume prices will not rise in the foreseeable future. We may plateau at about $600,000 as an average price in the London regional market. A steady level real estate market may be just what we require for the next few years.” Read more: LSTAR | London Inc. | | | New blue box rules leave some small businesses — or the environment — on the hook Some small businesses in London are grumbling about the “severe consequences” of Ontario’s upcoming shift to producer-funded recycling pickup, set to take effect in 2026. The new system, which will see the national non-profit Circular Materials assume responsibility for recycling pickup, is only being extended to residential addresses, leaving businesses in those areas to either hire contractors on their own, or send their recycling to the landfill. A total of 535 London businesses, located in residential areas, will lose their recycling pickup. “That could be daycares, hairdressers, non-profits,” the city’s director of waste management, Shawna Chambers, told The London Free Press. “If they are not residential, they’re no longer eligible for blue box collection.” Vicki Smith, interim director of Downtown London BIA, said, “Having a small business in today’s day and age, it is hard on them already, so adding an extra cost of recycling pickup, that they have to take on themselves, it’ll definitely affect their markets even further.” The city budget for 2026 does plan to put a quarter of a million dollars each year toward maintaining blue bin pickup for these businesses, but that budget has not been locked in as of yet. The upshot: There might be more to come on this file, as city staff are expected to bring forth a report on the transition to the new recycling program sometime this month. Recycling pickup in the core has long been an issue, according to Ward 13 Councillor David Ferreira, and there are a good number of businesses that would like to see recycling pickup extended to commercial customers. “We pay taxes like everybody else does in the city, there should be recycling offered,” one business owner, Wes McCann, CEO of Central Optometry, told the Free Press. “We have lots of cardboard that goes in the garbage because of shipments and such on a daily basis, so something minimal like cardboard would be a great start.” Read more: London Free Press | | | Ground breaks on Legacy Village City politicians were on hand with officials from Old Oak Properties to break ground on the latter’s Legacy Village residential project, located on the old psych hospital grounds and the largest residential development in the city’s history. “This is one of the most critical projects for us to meet our housing targets,” said Mayor Josh Morgan. “It’s the largest project that we have that’s been approved and is coming to fruition.” The first phase of the project will see a 32-storey, 386-unit tower built on the corner of Highbury and Oxford — the first step in an estimated 20-year timeline to complete the entire project. Calling it a “city within a city,” Old Oak CEO Robert Bierbaum spoke to the local connection. “When the opportunity [to buy the land] came up, we saw it as this amazing opportunity to do something impactful in London,” he said. The upshot: This is a huge project that will radically reshape the east end, with as many as 15,000 residents predicted to live in Legacy Village. “The east end has always felt like an afterthought for the rest of the city. That’s how residents have felt, and justifiably so,” said Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis, in The London Free Press. “It is going to provide not just new places to live, but it’s going to provide that new pulse to the east end in a way that really it hasn’t had, ever.” It appears there might have been a push on from city hall to get this project started in 2025, rather than next year — the hope being that by breaking ground before the new year the project can count towards London’s relatively tepid housing start numbers for 2025, and thus score them some cash from the province. “This is one of those projects that probably was going to land in 2026, maybe earlier in the year,” Morgan said. “But through some expedited processes, close work with staff and problem-solving, getting through the process faster, we see one of these high-density buildings getting in the ground.” Read more: London Free Press | CTV News London | | | City pushes pause on ARU approvals City council has passed an interim control bylaw that temporarily pauses approvals on higher-density Additional Residential Unit (ARU) projects, hoping to prevent a flood of applications from developers attempting to circumvent new rules. In February 2024, the city removed the cap on bedrooms city-wide, which, when combined with the approval of up to three ARUs on each property, allowed developers to bring forward aggressive densification proposals that have sparked some concern from residents. The poster project for this was the approval of a two-building, 32-bedroom project on Elmdale Avenue, which raised howls from some neighbours, and surprised some councillors. “We realize that adjustments need to be made, but the original intent, I think we’re still behind that,” said Councillor Steve Lehman, chair of the planning committee. In October, the planning committee endorsed an amendment that would temporarily cap the size and density of ARUs, to two bedrooms and 80 per cent of the gross floor area of the main dwelling, a change that councillors felt would “ensure that ARUs remain modest in scale, better integrated into existing neighbourhoods, and aligned with the original intent of gentle density.” The upshot: The interim control bylaw will pause all approvals until the new rules come into effect, and was something requested by Councillor Corrine Rahman back in October. “There is no doubt in my mind that our policy has to be revisited,” Councillor Jerry Pribil said. “None of us were thinking of this kind of intensification.” While there will surely be some complaints about NIMBYism here, it does seem like the city earnestly feels this is just an unintended consequence of a policy it still stands by, for the most part. “We’re still a city that is in need of housing and building as much housing as possible,” Mayor Josh Morgan said on Tuesday. “What we’ve seen, though, is the intended gentle densification that we want in the neighborhoods has gone to the extreme in some very rare cases.” The city plans on considering new limits next year. Read more: CTV News London | | | Water concerns bubble up at PowerCo Officials in Elgin are scrambling to deal with a major water supply issue for the PowerCo plant. Andrew Henry, the director of regional water for Elgin Area Water Supply System, said that PowerCo’s water use estimates have jumped from 13 million litres a day to 20 million litres, as have the cooling needs of the projects in Yarmouth Yards (which includes the Vianode plant), which will necessitate $400 million in upgrades to the local water system. “This is something that literally came out of left field and caught us all by surprise,” Henry told CBC News London. The region is now left wondering where the money is going to come from. Officials are looking to Volkswagen and/or the province for the cash, hoping to avoid nearly doubling the rate residents in the area pay for their water, but neither has yet committed funding. “We need some help from beyond the municipal level,” said Aylmer mayor Peter Barbour, who in a letter to MPP Rob Flack warned of “profound implications for the regional water system.” London would also not remain unaffected here — they are the largest of the municipalities that pulls water from Elgin’s plant, using up to 50 per cent of its capacity. Barbour told CTV News London that the city could “theoretically…be saddled with a $200 million debt,” or could have to figure out how to find a lot of additional water supply. The upshot: Conflict and concern over water use and other next-gen industries, like AI data centres, have become more common in the last couple years, and this may become an issue that’s cut from the same cloth. Enough has been invested in this project already that it seems likely an invested party or combination thereof will step up with the necessary funding to keep the tab off ratepayers (safe to say taxpayer support for auto industry projects has grown a little less enthusiastic recently). In a statement to CBC, PowerCo said “as we build this generational project, we are working closely with our municipal and regional partners,” which it said “includes support for infrastructure such as water system upgrades.” Read more: CBC News London | CTV News London | | | Dispatch: November 7, 2025 A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week. View listings here | | | | |