David Harrison and his crew announced earlier this year that they were bringing their popular H & W Produce store to St. Albert.
Their timing couldn’t be better — St. Albertans want new grocery stores, the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards suggest, with H & W taking second place in the Business You Wish Was in St. Albert category. (The Freson Bros. grocery chain took first, but did not respond to a request for an interview.)
Harrison, who owns the H & W chain, said he and his parents grew up in St. Albert and have always wanted to open a store there. Up until recently, though, the city didn’t have the population to support one of their stores, or a lot with the right size, price, and road access for it. It was only last January that he and his staff found a site that met their needs.
“St. Albert is ready for a store like us now,” he said, adding that their new outlet on McKenney Ave. should be open by Sept. 1.
“We believe St. Albert will be the ideal fit for what we do.”
How to attract business
St. Albert & District Chamber of Commerce chair Angie Hampshire said she was a bit surprised to see two grocery stores beat out last year’s winner (IKEA, which placed third this year) in this category, but said it speaks volumes about economic development.
“Economic development isn’t just about big industry. It’s also about listening to residents and supporting the kinds of businesses they want and need in everyday life.”
Mike Erickson, director of economic development for the City of St. Albert, said his department does consumer spending surveys to track what businesses St. Albert residents want. Grocers and restaurants were currently on their to-get list, as was a bigger hotel to host large public events; expect a hotel demand study on this subject in the near future, he added.
Once they know what a community wants, economic development officers work the phones and the convention floors to find those businesses and promote their homes as places to invest, Erickson continued.
“St. Albert’s very fortunate in that we do have a very high household income,” Erickson said, which can be a selling point for some businesses.
St. Albert’s high standards of living and occasional presence on best-places-to-live lists both make it an attractive place to set up shop, Hampshire said. City council has also worked to streamline its business recommendations and open up more land for development, particularly in the form of the Lakeview Business District.
Erickson said St. Albert’s has become something of a logistics hub lately, which could help during today’s push to diversify Canada away from trade with the United States. It also has a well-educated population that could staff the plastics, software, and robotics companies the city currently hopes to attract. St. Albert’s business community was also very supportive of newcomers, and his department often connects prospective investors with local businessowners to chat about life in the city.
More generally, Erickson said St. Albert can make itself attractive to businesses by having predictable rules for zoning, hassle-free permit processes, competitive tax rates, and targeted incentives. Economic development departments can also help companies find demographic data or potential sites.
But as was the case with H & W, Erickson said many companies simply won’t move to a community unless they can find a suitable site there. Such investment decisions can take months or even decades of negotiations to make.
“These are really important decisions for these businesses, so they want to make sure they get the decision right.”
Business attraction is a team effort, Hampshire said. Businesses, city officials, and residents all have to get out there and tell others why St. Albert is a great place to live and work if we want to draw more companies here.
“We all have to be advocates for it with a common message that we are open for business,” she said.
