Tire distributor Groupe Touchette plans to double its footprint at a Winnipeg-area trimodal inland port after acquiring a 6.6-acre land parcel.

Touchette announced that it will build a new 112,000-square-foot distribution centre within the 20,000-acre CentrePort, which straddles Winnipeg and the Rural Municipality of Rosser, Man. The new facility will be situated in the Brookside Industrial Park, which is located in the Rosser portion of Centreport.

Upon completion, the new distribution facility will bring Montreal-based Touchette’s occupancy at CentrePort to 212,000 sf. Touchette currently occupies an existing 100,000-sf facility, opened in 2020, at the port.

Touchette will occupy 150,000 sf across the two buildings and lease out the remaining space with Cushman & Wakefield Stevenson serving as the leasing agent.

The tire distributor, headed by co-owner Nicolas Touchette, initially occupied 60,000 sf in the existing centre and rapidly expanded its operations to full occupancy in 2023. The need for the new facility came after Touchette acquired Burlington, Ont.-based National Tire Distributors from its former U.S.-based parent American Tire Distributors in 2022.

NTD distributes tires across Canada and the U.S. According to its website, the company has about 2.2 million sf of distribution capacity.

Touchette expects to start construction on the Winnipeg-area expansion project in spring 2024. The new facility is expected to begin operations in late 2024 or early 2025.