The long-speculated new Tim Hortons location in the town of Battleford continues to move closer to reality.
The latest news is that the Battleford Towne Square Ltd. Development at Highway 4 and 29th Street West - identified in the town's Development/Buildings Permit Report as a "Tim Hortons Restaurant" - was granted a building permit by the town valued at $800,000. The building is located in the C2 Commercial zone.
That permit was one of five development building permits mentioned in that June 3 building permit report from administration, for a total value of $1,498,000. The report was received by town council Monday.
The building permit comes on the heels of the approval, at the previous council meeting in May, of a request by Tim Hortons for a letter of support from the Town of Battleford to hire temporary foreign workers at the proposed new Battleford location.
The proposed franchise would be the third Tim Hortons in the Battlefords, adding to locations near the Frontier Mall and another near Sobeys in North Battleford's north end.
Officials connected to the potential Tim Hortons in Battleford have no comment to make on the latest developments at Town Hall. There also remains no official confirmation that a Tim Hortons franchise will indeed set up in that location, with the final decision resting with the company's head office.
Still, the news from Town Hall of the granting of a building permit, along with noticeable stepped-up activity on the site itself, have heightened anticipation in the community that a new Tim Hortons will begin construction before long.
Preliminary site work has been underway for some time at the junction of 29th Street and Highway 4 in Battleford, with crews seen on the site doing ground work over the past several weeks.
