St. Albert will soon have a new shopping mall by the Enjoy Centre now that council has rezoned part of the Riel Business Park.
City council voted unanimously Tuesday on a pair of bylaws to rezone 151 Riel Dr. from Business Park to Regional Commercial, paving the way for a proposed shopping centre.
The 5.5-hectare plot is immediately south of the Hole's Enjoy Centre, bordered by LeClair Way, Riel Drive and Ray Gibbon Drive. The proponent, Royal West Property Corp., has yet to submit a development plan for the site.
The land was originally zoned as a business park, which permits light industrial development. Changing it to Regional Commercial allows for the construction of shopping centres. The change will also add about 388 more car trips to the region's evening rush hour, according to a transportation study submitted in support of the rezoning.
Visible and valuable property
Speaking to council on behalf of Royal West, consultant Don Hussey said the site is a highly visible, accessible and valuable property, which makes it far more suited for commercial development than industrial, which is better suited to low visibility, low value sites.
Hussey said Royal West bought the property earlier this year with commercial development in mind.
"It's actually a little small for a big box [store]," he said, so his client is planning a "food-floor anchored shopping centre" similar to the Sobey's in downtown St. Albert: a major grocery store surrounded by smaller businesses.
Royal West believes the site to be a good spot for a Safeway or Sobey's, Hussey said, but have yet to settle on a retailer. The mall should also draw more customers to the Enjoy Centre. "There will be a strong synergy between the two developments."
Hussey acknowledged in an interview that St. Albert does have a lot of grocery stores, but his analysis suggests there's demand for more.
"People don't drive all across town to get their groceries," he said, and this site was well positioned to draw people from western St. Albert, via Ray Gibbon Drive, and proposed residential developments in and around Riel.
Site development should start in three to five years, Hussey said, depending on the pace of nearby residential growth.
Thumbs up from council
The change reduces the amount of industrial land available in the city to about 152 hectares from 158 — a reduction of about 3.5 per cent. City manager Bill Holtby said the rezoning wouldn't have much effect on the city's tax base because industrial sites create more tax dollars than commercial developments. However, he added that stores are still better than homes.
While he would prefer to see more industry, Ivan Mayer, president of the Riel Business Park Association, said in an interview that he had no problem with this plot becoming a commercial site.
"What I don't want to see is residential," he said. "We need more business tax [revenue] in the city of St. Albert."
Coun. Roger Lemieux praised the development at council.
"There's going to be a lot of residential development going west of Ray Gibbon Drive," he noted, as well as to the north due to the proposed Rampart Avenir development. "I believe this facility will be needed, and will be a fantastic avenue for us to increase our tax revenue."
Jim Hole of Hole's Greenhouses said he was looking forward to working with his new neighbours. "I don't have any qualms about having high-quality retail going in beside us."
