More commercial development is coming to Moose Jaw.
Francis Bast, the director of sales and development with Century West Development, said developments are underway close to the Trans Canada Highway in Ross Park. One project is for a new a 10,000 square-foot strip mall on the land by Thatcher Drive and Ninth Avenue Northeast.
In between the current strip mall and Co-op Gas Bar, a 5,000 sq. ft. restaurant is going to be erected. He added that two different hotel groups also purchased land just the south of that land and those hotels are anticipated to be finished by 2014 with construction beginning sometime next year.
“We see that (Moose Jaw) will eventually expand,” said Bast. “We’re starting right now.”
Bast said the new strip mall, which will complement the existing Ross Park Centre strip mall, and the restaurant are expected to be finished by the spring or summer of 2013. He said the land was purchased five years ago because the company saw the potential for economic development in the city.
While Tourism Moose Jaw executive director Candis Kirkpatrick told the Times-Herald she doesn’t know the thinking behind the new development, she said construction wouldn’t be happening if the developers “hadn’t done their homework.”
“I think that anytime you drive into a city and drive by a city and you see new construction, it just really gives you that feeling of growth and optimism,” said Kirkpatrick. “The land has just been sitting there waiting for someone.… I’m just elated to hear the news.”
For more information, see an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
