{"id":15419,"date":"2016-10-05T13:09:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T17:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15419"},"modified":"2016-10-12T16:42:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T20:42:51","slug":"magna-to-stay-in-aurora-until-2022-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/magna-to-stay-in-aurora-until-2022-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Magna to stay in Aurora until 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magna founder Frank Stronach, pictured here at last month’s Hoedown with MP Leona Alleslev and MPP Chris Ballard, made Aurora the company’s base. Auroran photo by Glenn Rodger<\/em><\/p>\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Magna International has put off its move out of Aurora to King Township until 2022, according to the company.
\nThe auto part manufacturer, which is the Town\u2019s largest and most prominent employer announced Monday they have extended their lease on their Aurora headquarters until 2022 after pausing the move to King.
\nThe company previously announced its intention to relocate to an extensive new corporate headquarters in King Township with a 2017 target.
\n\u201cMagna confirms that the project to construct a new corporate headquarters building in King Township has been put on hold,\u201d said Tracy Fuerst, the company\u2019s Director of Corporate Communications, said in a statement. \u201cWe have recently completed discussion with our landlord and have reached terms to extend our lease for the Aurora headquarters building until 2022.
\n\u201cThis provides Magna an opportunity to monitor current macro-economic conditions and to continue evaluating our future need. We are extremely appreciative to King Township for their hard work, support and professionalism provided throughout the development process.\u201d
\nMagna\u2019s decision to postpone their departure by five years was welcomed by Town Hall.
\n\u201cObviously we\u2019re pleased that they are staying,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe. \u201cI fully understand why they were looking at moving, so I assume they\u2019re going ahead with their new corporate office, but they are not starting that until 2020. I think that provides a more orderly transition on that space and I think that is probably the major outcome there.\u201d
\nMagna\u2019s present headquarters is owned by Granite, a holding company. The future of that campus and finding a business to fill it, has been a top priority for municipal economic development staff since Magna announced its departure. While Mayor Dawe said the Town \u201cput a couple of people onto Granite, nothing came from that\u201d in the short term.
\n\u201cWe will continue that process,\u201d he says. \u201cIt now gives us the breathing room, if you will, to sit down and have a more orderly discussion about that.\u201d
\nAs far as finding a business to fill some of the gaps anticipated by Magna\u2019s departure, Mayor Dawe said it is inevitable that when a business like Magna announces it is leaving, or a business of similar scale is coming in, it can be a distraction from the economic game plan as staff address that situation and re-assess.
\n\u201cWe now have a fairly well-defined timeline and it gives us an opportunity to work within that timeline,\u201d he said.
\nBut, does it also provide the Town with five years to make a good pitch on why they should stay? That\u2019s doubtful.
\n\u201cMagna was gung-ho on moving forward [on the relocation] and then you had things like Brexit and the potential of a rather serious upheaval in U.S. politics,\u201d say Mayor Dawe. \u201cThere are things that go on that are totally external. That is external to what they can do. Magna\u2019s decision, quite frankly, was external to what we do. It is a private company with a private landlord. You work with people and then you try and create an environment where they would like to stay. You would like to see them stay beyond 2022.\u201d
\nThis was a view shared by Anthony Ierullo, Aurora\u2019s Manager of Strategic Planning, who said they were \u201csuper-excited and elated about the opportunity to host Magna for an additional five years.\u201d As a company with an international presence, he said they contribute significantly to the Town not just as an employer and through philanthropy, but also in building \u201cour brand as a community.\u201d
\nWe would like to see this as an opportunity for us to continue dialogue with them and see if there is an opportunity to see them in Aurora long-term,\u201d said Mr. Ierullo. \u201cIt is great news for us. Magna is a significant employer and employs hundreds of people at that particular location. Those people have a broader impact on our community. They visit local businesses, support the local community, a lot of them are local, so it is a great opportunity from that perspective.
\nOver in King Township, while there was a sense of disappointment the move has been delayed, they are optimistic it will be born to fruition.
\n\u201cWhile Council and staff are disappointed the project is on hold, we understand Magna\u2019s decision in light of today\u2019s challenging global economy,\u201d said Mayor Steve Pellegrini in a statement. \u201cSince Magna is keeping its land in King Township, King will be ready to work with them again. The process to construct such a facility is going to take three years, realistically.
\n\u201cMagna representatives have made it very clear that they have appreciated the efforts of Council and staff in support of their application. Magna does intend to complete the zoning process. King will encourage them to continue the site plan approval process, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magna founder Frank Stronach, pictured here at last month’s Hoedown with MP Leona Alleslev and MPP Chris Ballard, made Aurora the company’s base. Auroran photo by Glenn Rodger By Brock Weir Magna International has put off its move out of Aurora to King Township until 2022, according to the company. The auto part manufacturer, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2016-10-06-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-40H","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 04:04:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}