After three years of inactivity, the shovels are finally in the ground at the vacant lot next to St. Albert’s downtown post office.
The pay parking lot will be replaced by a 6,000-sq.-ft. commercial building with an outdoor courtyard. The new L-shaped building will have five spaces in its one-storey portion and two “feature turrets” on an upper level, said owner Michael Herald.
Dubbed Perron Courtyard, the building was first slated for construction in 2007 but high construction costs prompted Herald to wait.
“It was a long haul,” he said.
Now slated for an October completion, the building will cost a little over $1 million, a saving of about 25 per cent from 2007 pricing.
“Construction prices were just absolutely ludicrous,” Herald said. “That’s what put the whole thing on ice.”
Herald also owns the St. Thomas Street building that’s home to his Wine Kitz business. He’ll move the retail outlet to Perron Court to act as its anchor tenant, he said.
One of the spaces in the new building will be built to accommodate a coffee shop or eatery, which Herald is hoping to attract. He’s had inquiries but no takers yet.
“I’m hoping now that construction has started, there will be more inquiries,” he said.
An ongoing concern with the downtown’s commercial landscape is the prevalence of professional and medical services on the ground level. Herald said he supports the idea of having retail on the ground level but feels it’s up to city council rather than property owners to put such restraints in place.
“We’ll try and get businesses that complement each other,” Herald said. “That being said, what’s it going to be, we’ll find out one by one as they come in.”
It’s good to see something finally happening on that land, which has served as a parking lot for years, said chamber of commerce chair Mike Howes.
“We’re always excited to see new development down there and an office building will be more appropriate than a parking lot,” he said.
The building will be a welcome addition to downtown, agreed Jody Reekie, owner of Modern Eyes Gallery.
“I think it does send a message that there is development, there are things going on downtown,” she said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse also likes what he sees.
“Every time a new building goes up it’s an improvement,” he said. “It continues to attract more traffic [and] more people to live downtown.”
He noted that a new commercial-residential building that’s nearing completion at 5 Perron will add more residents to downtown, which will in turn spawn more commercial development.
“Downtown development has to have people first and then commerce will follow that,” Crouse said.
