A vacant former car dealership building on Railway Avenue will soon be back in business.
Council has approved a rezoning application for a property at 832- 104th Street, right next to Railway Avenue.
The application was to establish a public garage at that location, which is permitted as a discretionary use in the mixed use zoning district where it will be located.
The building is the former Manning Mercury dealership that was located there for several years. The property was most recently occupied by Country Feed and Pet, but the lot has been vacant for a number of years.
The plan is for a Speedy Collision Centre and an Enterprise Rent-A-Car to open from that location.
In a letter to council from Pat Quinney, VP of business development for Speedy Collision, the location was identified due to its proximity to the SGI Claims Centre as well as its street visibility. Few changes are expected to the layout of the building but there will be renovations to the interior and the exterior.
The locale is also considered ideal as one of the prior uses for the building was as an auto body shop.
After the vote to approve the application, Mayor Ian Hamilton said he was happy to see a new business coming to the 104th Street-Railway Avenue location, right beside the new Battlefords Trade and Education Centre building currently under construction.
“I think it’s wonderful news that someone is committed to repurposing that facility and bringing it back to productive use,” said Hamilton.
“It’s an entrance way to our city and vacancies like that are not welcoming to those first coming into our city, so I’m very excited about the fact it’s being repurposed and that it will be back in operation in a short period of time.”
