There is a whole new community neighbourhood growing up on Estevan's north side.
Trimount Estevan Developments Ltd. launched their latest venture in the Energy City last Friday morning with a splash of dirt and the introduction of another plan to provide space and housing for the city's growing population.
Mike Reinhaeller, vice-president of operations for Trimount, served as emcee for a brief launching ceremony and party at the development site located a block north of Wellock Road not far from Lynn Prime Park.
Reinhaeller introduced Trimount president Jason Fleury, along with Matt Rood, vice-president of business development, who drove from Weyburn where the company is also developing a tract of property for residential use.
Jack Grant, representing both Boardwalk Properties, and Sam Kolias, investors in the Estevan project, also spoke to the gathering that included city councillors, civic employees, construction personnel and corporate employees.
"We're excited about Estevan's growth. Our master plan for this area includes parks and pathways. We're making it family friendly for newcomers to your city," said Reinhaeller. "We've been here as part of an earlier subdivision development, so we're part of your community now. I have moved here with my wife, we're in."
Fleury said he had to thank the City of Estevan for embracing the company, realizing that it is no small or easy task to work in tandem with developers to get a project such as this together in an accelerated timeline. He also paid tribute to local contractors who have translated the proposals and plans into a project to build "a community within a community."
Fleury said sites have been prepared for the first 37 single family residences and Terry Germain of Century 21, the agents for the property sales, noted that the first 12 properties have already been sold after less than a week on the market.
Duplexes and townhouses are being planned in the next step of the first phase of development, said Fleury, and four storey apartment units are also in the plan.
Estevan's new fire hall will be located in the neighbourhood as the new community within a community expands to include the construction of up to 470 new sites for homes.
"But today we mark the breaking of the ground for this beginning," said Fleury.
Estevan Councillor Chris Istace, speaking on behalf of the City, said the governing body realized that their best resourceful move to move forward on housing plans, called for them to partner "with those who know how to build homes."
Estevan's land development officer Rob Denys was also thanked by Trimount for keeping them on the right track when it came to the specific properties and the details that needed to be tended to.
Istace added that "this developer is taking the ball and running with it and making a full integration into a community ... not just homes." The councillor added that these were the kinds of projects that had to roll out if Estevan was going to fill the 1,200 job vacancies that exist in the city and immediate area.
Grant, who hails from Calgary, brought greetings from Kolias and noted that he should win "Estevan's tourist of the year award. This is my 19th trip here in less than a year," he joked. "If you don't have such an award, you should have one and you should give it to me," he said with a laugh.
He said Kolias had decided to invest in the Estevan project when "he could have invested anywhere. But he said he enjoyed the people, your folks at City Hall and their eagerness to move it along quickly while still adhering to the values that they were insisting on to build together."
Grant went on to say that growth in a city such as Estevan is inevitable, but it must also be "sustainable and ethical ... fostering ideals and here in the Dominion Heights community you will find values because there will be faith in the developer. This city deserves the best and no citizen should ever feel as a stranger in their new home town."
Trimount officials also noted that as an ongoing presence in the city, they will be getting involved in the volunteer and charitable sides of citizenship.
Ed Komarnicki, MP for Souris-Moose Mountain, said he was excited to see this particular area of the city undergoing growth since "I've walked on this prairie land, so it's great to see development here now. I saw things come to fruition. Trimount took the risks. They saw houses where we saw a chunk of land and they will remember they're building communities where people will invest their lives."
Reinhaeller noted the entire project embraces a total of 86 acres with 22 of those being dedicated to the first two phases of the development that can expand to embrace as many as 230 single family homes.
All services including sidewalks, curbs, water and sewer, et al, should be completed by Dec. 1 of this year with most of the properties in Phase 1 already serviced.
