More than 800,000 square feet of new development will take place in St. Albert in the next three years, says the city's executive director of economic development.
"In fact, we are pushing for a million," Guy Boston told the city's annual economic development breakfast Tuesday.
He summarized his team's successes in 2014, including some developments expected to move ahead this year. Other developers will become "very active by 2016," he said.
He said the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission will start construction of its new liquor distribution centre south of Apex Casino this year. Upon completion, the 500,000 square feet building will create more than 600 new jobs.
In the northwest of the city, Intergulf-Cidex Group of Companies is preparing the construction of three buildings for its Ville Giroux neighbourhood development. Two of the buildings will be residential. The other will be part of a commercial strip.
"This is our first urban village so we are very excited about that," added Boston.
The third development is south of the Enjoy Centre. There, GWL Realty Advisors are managing a development for industrial warehouses and commercial space. The site is expected to take five to seven years to fully develop and could create 1,800 jobs one day, said Boston.
Economic development in review
Economic development in St. Albert grew out of a need to change the city's tax split, said Mayor Nolan Crouse. In 2007, 91 per cent of St. Albert's taxes came from residents. The hope was to change the tax split to 80 per cent residential and 20 per cent commercial, he said. Today, the split is 87-13.
"If we build the city as it's currently planned … we would be at 77 per cent to 23 per cent," he said. "So that shift in the last number of years in terms of planning has been very important."
But in order to have economic development, the city also needed to undergo a corporate and cultural shift to welcome new developers and keep existing businesses here, he said.
In the last three years, St. Albert created 1,400 acres of non-residential development and designated more than 600 acres of land for future employment, the "employment lands."
These accomplishments were possible because the city changed to being more welcoming and hired Guy Boston in 2012 to build better relationships with developers and landowners, he said.
"We are so business friendly now that we even have a bong shop and medical marijuana facility wanting to come to town," he said. "We have a great trend of growing population, building housing and building industrial development."
Employment lands
The city is now discussing options for the employment lands, an area west of the city hoped to house non-residential development one day. The site is expected to create over 5,000 jobs one day, said Boston.
The city is looking for feedback on three possible development concepts. The proposals are for a light industrial and office park, a business park with some entertainment uses (such as a movie theatre) or a research park, which could include high-tech businesses or a university campus.
Attendees at the breakfast seemed to prefer the latter, or a combination of proposals. Boston said the city will hold an open house on the proposals in May or June and is open to suggestions.
More information on the concepts will be available in Saturday's St. Albert Gazette.
