The development activity in Battleford West isn’t showing any sign of ending anytime soon.
The Discovery Co-op location is now open and a new seniors apartment, Battleford West Place, is going up across the street with an expected November grand opening.
But behind the new apartment building stand a number of lots where 14 new residential homes and 37 new low-rise condominiums will be going up. It will be the next phase of residential development in the subdivision.
Dean Kupchanko, developer of the Battleford West subdivision, took the News-Optimist on a brief tour of the location where the new residential development is to take place.
The residential lots have been bought and homes will be built by Lehman Construction Inc. and are being offered in the more affordable range for potential homebuyers.
Those are to be built on each side of Heritage Court, which will be a cul-de-sac off of Telegraph Road.
Heritage Court is off of Telegraph Road, and across from there is the area where there will be a grand total of 45 low-rise condominium units put up.
Eight of them are already up and occupied on Heritage Landing Crescent. Construction is now underway on a three-unit condominium near those but located on Telegraph Road.
Two more buildings – four-suiters – are due to start construction later this year, and the rest will follow. Do-all Holdings will be constructing those and they have the right to build 21 units.
The other condo builder is NRG Efficient Homes Inc. run by Neil Good.
“I’m sure it will be two or three or four more years before it’s built out,” said Kupchanko, “but I can see that that’s what it’s going to look like.”
As well there are reservations being taken on their lots and country estates but those are still down the road.
There’s also over a kilometer of paved walking trail in the area and the idea is to continue to link more and more.
Getting the development ready for sale has required plenty of infrastructure development. $1.6 million was spent putting the water and sewer in this year, as well as the power and gas.
This fall, concrete curbing and sidewalks will start going in. The plan is to let that sit over the winter and then when the road is fully settled they will start paving.
“The town has a policy where you cannot put your underground services and pave in the same year,” said Kupchanko, a policy he supports because he’s seen other places where the roads are a rollercoaster from all the work being done in one year.
Here, all the roads are perfectly level and flat, he said. “There’s nothing worse than a new road and it’s not flat level,” said Kupchanko.
The entire Battleford West area has come a long way in just a few years, though it has taken a lot of work.
“It’s been a long process,” said Kupchanko. It started in the spring of 2008 with Telegraph Heights with 36 lots, but then “the world fell off a financial cliff,” so 2009 and 2010 were slow.
“Since then, things have continued to grow,” said Kupchanko.
There are now 25 houses built in Telegraph Heights. As well, Battleford West Place is still under construction and will be a 24-unit apartment when it is completed later this year, with 16 fully-reserved suites.
On the commercial side, Tim Hortons opened in December 2013 and the Co-op gas bar and convenience store is now open. Closer to Highway 16 is the Kramer Ltd. headquarters that helped to spur on the rest of the development in Battleford West.
That is about all on the commercial side for the moment, but Kupchanko does say they are negotiating with a hotel group with the hope of attracting a hotel to the area in the next two years.
“It’s been slow but steady,” said Kupchanko. “From when this was farmland, to today, is eight years and in some respects it looks like there’s been a lot accomplished looking back on those eight years.”
