It would appear that business in the St. Albert area is continuing to hum along.
According to the City of St. Albert’s 2010 year-end report, approved licenced businesses run out of commercial or industrial locations numbered 1,350 at year end.
That is up slightly from the 1,279 licences the year before and a 24 per cent jump compared to 2006.
Figures for home-based businesses are up as well, with 1,067 approved licences as of Dec. 31, 2010 compared to 1,003 the year before and 867 in 2006.
There were 844 non-residential business licences as of the end of 2010, which is also up slightly from 827 the year before, and up 17.5 per cent from 2006.
Larry Horncastle, director for St. Albert business and tourism development, said he feels those numbers will level off for 2011, because there are not a lot of new developments in the works. But there should be quite a jump once again in 2012 as new projects come on stream.
He feels there is much this could be attributed to.
“To me, the number one is that business has confidence in the St. Albert economy and is prepared to invest in St. Albert. That’s huge,” said Horncastle. “It’s not the city and it’s not business and tourism development that are creating the jobs and the investment. It’s actually the business owners. They’re saying, hey, there’s an opportunity in St. Albert.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse agreed that businesses will choose where they want to go.
“As the population rises you attract more,” he said. “Depending on what it is you’re competing with — Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, etc. — you’re competing in different sectors for different things. We just have to make sure we get our fair share.”
“We’re trying to create the culture and the climate to attract businesses,” he added.
Retail businesses seem to be the ones choosing St. Albert the most as of late. Between October 2008 and Dec. 31, 2010, 61 new retail businesses set up shop in the city.
In comparison, there were 25 new businesses in the construction trades sector for the same period.
One sector, transportation/warehouse/distribution, went down by one business licence during that period.
“They are here to take advantage of the marketplace and the high disposable income spending taking place in St. Albert,” said Horncastle, of the retail jump. “Our studies tell us people will get a lot of their personal services close to where they work — so we are keeping their spending at home.”
Horncastle said it is not just the city itself fueling that development.
“It’s also that huge trading area to the north of St. Albert that we will be drawing from as well,” he said. “The more service we offer here, the longer people are prepared to drive to get [it].”
