Rising from the rubble: former Sault paper mill to get new life as bioenergy centre.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: SAULT STE. MARIE

In the bowels of the former St. Marys Paper mill, a paper-spooling machine sits gathering dust, a giant spindle of paper still threaded through its components, silenced after decades of operation. When production stopped here in the spring of 2010, everyone just walked away, leaving more than 100 years of paper production, machinery, wood and employment behind.

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In a matter of months, the machinery and all modern buildings will be gone when demolition makes way for new development, which will include a bioenergy component, as proposed by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre and Riv-ersedge Developments.

The two organizations are teaming up to transform a part of the 75-acre property into an "advanced bioenergy and smart energy park," which will allow for research and pilot plants related to biofuels, district heating, alternative energy technology and a technology research facility. It will be one component to the Smart Energy Strategy devised by the city earlier this year.

"Our role would be to develop partnerships and look for technologies that would be a good fit for here," said Jason Naccarato, the innovation centre's vice-president of development. "We'd also look at technology transfer and commercialization and try to take some of these research projects into spinoffs, and just look out for any technology-based partners we can come and bring to the site."

Expansion into bioenergy will augment the city's mandate as the "alternative energy capital of North America," while creating jobs, encouraging research and boosting economic development by creating spinoff companies located in the Sault, Naccarato said.

Talks about creating a combined heat and power (CHP) project on the site are ongoing, and Naccarato said Essar Steel Algoma has expressed preliminary interest in getting involved. An advisory committee is being assembled comprising members from Sault College, Algoma University, the Economic Development Corporation and Riversedge, and representatives from private sector companies are being sought as well.

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Riversedge proposes turning the site into a combined research/residential/office space. After purchasing the property last spring, Riversedge held consultations to get community input and began site reclamation efforts. The original sandstone buildings will remain on site--the administration office has been deemed a heritage building and can't be touched--while all modern buildings will...