In Amherst, Nova Scotia, Town Council approved the purchase of three land parcels totalling close to 73 acres for approximately $599,000 on December 15, 2025, to expand the industrial park and support future business growth. The acquisition will be funded from the Town’s Operating Reserve, which the town says will avoid an immediate impact on the municipal tax rate.
The newly acquired land sits next to existing industrial zones on Race Track Road, Industrial Drive and Ancestral Drive, giving the town direct control over sites needed for new factories or warehouses. According to the Town of Amherst media release, this move aligns with the Town’s 2024–2028 Strategic Plan goal of keeping a “development-ready” inventory of industrial land.
Town officials said securing these parcels will help Amherst respond to growing interest from aerospace, green-technology and food-processing companies — sectors identified as anchors of the local industrial economy. The town has kept its commercial tax rate at $4.47 per $100 of assessment for three years. The Town has used its Operating Reserve to fund other strategic priorities; the 110-acre woodland purchase in December 2023 was funded through the Nature Challenge Fund administered by Nova Scotia’s Department of Environment and Climate Control, not from the Operating Reserve.
This expansion follows several zoning changes in 2024 and decades of industrial activity in Amherst, where the park has reached high occupancy levels. With immediate municipal ownership of these 73 acres, the town can move quickly on infrastructure planning and marketing to businesses looking for space in what the town describes as the geographic centre of Atlantic Canada.
