BMI Group, headed by Justus, Paul and John Veldman, is ramping up a promotional campaign for a proposed heavy-cargo port at Red Rock, a community of 942 on the north shore of Lake Superior.
BMI signed a memorandum of agreement late last year with the 2,089-member Red Rock Indian Band to redevelop lands associated with a former linerboard mill site there.
The newest Veldman proposal involves "one of the Netherlands' premier custom shipbuilders, Neptune Marine and our partnership experience with HOPA Ports in Niagara to develop a uniquely efficient and robust shipping and transload solution purpose-built to support the mining, First Nations, and heavy industry needs of northern Ontario," BMI says in a news release issued this morning.
This week, BMI is promoting the idea at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto.
In June, it will be flying its Red Rock flag at the Canadian Mining Expo in Timmins.
Here in Sault Ste. Marie, the Veldmans are known for a number of grandiose, but unfinished development schemes.
More than a decade ago, Veldman-controlled Riversedge Developments bought the former St. Marys Paper site, performed some major industrial decommissioning work there and tried to pursue alternative uses including arts, entertainment, fine dining, tourism, educational and other business components.
The Veldmans were unable to complete that job, which was taken over by Tony Porco and SIS Group.
Another Veldman Riversedge venture — to redevelop the former Soo Falls/Northern Breweries site — similarly fell flat, although Paul Veldman told SooToday last fall that architects had been retained and further news on that initiative was expected soon.
The Veldman family still owns the pulp tower/board mill properties in Sault Ste. Marie.
The condition of those structures became an issue in last fall's municipal election, with now-Mayor Matthew Shoemaker signalling he couldn't support a $300-million battery energy storage initiative at 95 Huron Street "until the repair of these buildings is brought into a more acceptable state under our property standards bylaw."
More recently, Shoemaker toured the buildings with the Veldmans and said he was pleased with the progress he found.
