A new development south of the Enjoy Centre is expected to combine commercial and residential spaces to accommodate hundreds of new St. Albertans.
The 13.5 acre site in South Riel is expected to offer a new hotel, lifestyle mall, a grocery store and residential apartment space for between 500 and 600 people, said Reisa Schwartzman, president and CEO of Cape Construction, the developer.
“We just fell in love with St. Albert. We thought it was a really nice community and we started looking for opportunities and this site became available,” she said. “And we took a bite at it and bought it.”
Cape Construction, a Vancouver-based developer, is a third-generation family business. The company specializes in a variety of projects, from commercial to residential and industrial.
Bellevue is one of its larger projects, said Schwartzman. The development is based on an urban village design, combining commercial and residential development to make the area a “walkable, community space.”
The lifestyle mall will be unique to St. Albert, she said.
It will offer the traditional function of a shopping centre and a variety of leisure amenities such as restaurants, community services and “hopefully a gym, a daycare, and some groceries,” she said.
“It’s an outside mall so you will still be able to drive up to every single retail site but it’s set up so it’s much more inviting to have access from a pedestrian point of view,” she said. “For example, there will be residences above retail. So you can come downstairs and go for coffee 30 feet away from the entrance of your door.”
Schwartzman added that the shopping centre would service much of the west of the city. Other housing developments are expected to spring up around the Enjoy Centre in coming years, and there are but few retail and community services available in the area, she said.
Which grocer will move onto the site has not been decided, she added.
Cape Construction will not announce which company or chain will run the hotel. But the building will likely offer between 108 and 120 units, she said.
“There are quite a few people interested in the site,” she said.
A date for the construction of Bellevue Village has not been set. Schwartzman cautioned that some development plans for the site could still change as Cape Construction continues to work with the city.
“We are investing in St. Albert because we believe in St. Albert and we look forward to being a part of the community,” she said.
