The Chair of Invest North Bay is stressing it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

George Burton presented to Council Tuesday night.

He says when the group was formed and given $1 million from the city, he believed investors and businesses would be crashing down the door to make deals.

But, that hasn’t been the case.

Burton says North Bay is relatively unknown to the investment community in Southern Ontario, with people seeing Ottawa, Sudbury or Toronto as viable options instead.

The group is now using part of the funding from council to market the city to specific companies.

Burton says it’s about courting the investors from the 416 and 905 area codes.

“Our marketing is focusing on return on investment, cost of land, cost of business taxes,” he says. “It’s not about the two lakes, the clean air we have and no traffic jams. That’s the secondary part of the story.”

Burton says only four companies have shown up at their door looking to invest with three directed to better sources of funding.

One is still on going.

He says it’s been a three-year process with this one company, doing their due diligence on the city, and are hoping to announce something positive on the company to the public in the next couple of months.