MONCTON – Darrin Smith is no stranger to Atlantic Canada. His family is originally from Newfoundland, and the Ontario businessman had wanted to move closer to home for a while. An expansion plan for his business, JessEm Tool Company, is turning that into reality.

The Orillia-based family business that makes woodworking tools is moving its whole operation to Moncton.

“I always wanted to live on the east coast,” said Smith, who named the company after his twin daughters Jessica and Emily.

“Our business is growing and it’s not really affordable in Ontario anymore, and I couldn’t find any suitable industrial space or land.”

Smith is investing in land and the company’s 85,000-square-foot facility, which is currently being built on Desbrisay Avenue in Moncton Industrial Park West. In Orillia, JessEm Tool operates out of a 27,000-square-foot facility.

“Moncton’s got lots of industrial land, the construction costs are good, so it just made sense,” he said.

Smith said it’s the real estate costs that attracted him the most.

The cost of land in Moncton is about $65,000 an acre, and construction will cost him about $90 per square foot overall. In Orillia, which is about an hour and a half drive from Toronto, the land Smith wants costs around $360,000 per acre, and construction would cost him another $150 per square foot.

“There’s only so much money to go around,” he added. “If I want to pay my staff well, and have the best equipment for my staff, I can’t throw it all the way on the building.”

Smith said he’d been looking into moving to Moncton seriously for more than a year. But when the pandemic nearly doubled JessEm Tool’s business overnight, the move was sped up.

“I just don’t have the space here and I have to do something in a hurry,” he said.