Mini boom continues with Flying J

By Collin Gallant on May 3, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

What’s that being built near the Trans-Canada Highway in Brier Park?

It’s a pot plant! It’s a cryptocurrency mine!

No! It’s a Flying J!

Ground broke last month on the truckstop, fuel station and restaurant, which is located on Saamis Drive but highly visible from the TCH.

With so many high profile projects in the area however, several Hatters contacted the News this week asking about site grading and work going on at a long-vacant stretch beside the major highway.

Officials with the network of commercial truck fuel and rest stops, as well as a spokesman with the Box Springs Business Park, confirm the project will become the newest stop in the widely known and popular Pilot Flying J brand.

“We always get a lot of feedback from drivers, and there are a lot of other things that go into (site) decision,” said Anne Lezotte, senior manager of public relations for the company based in Knoxville, Tenn.

“We go where we think we need to be, and it’s a great area. We’re excited.”

The 12-acre site will offer fare from a company restaurant, parking for 52 rigs, four showers and six diesel filling lanes.

Pilot Flying J currently operates a station on the east side of Brooks and a cardlock in Lethbridge, but none in Saskatchewan west of Regina. The company also operates a cardlock facility in Redcliff.

The land is among 32 acres in the area owned by Pointe Developments, a company related to BSBP.

“A lot of time it takes one person to pull the trigger, then things start to happen,” said Box Springs spokesman John Hashem.

The partnership still has 20 acres of land on a parcel that’s separated by an access road and a city-owned plot that houses the Medicine Hat District Labour Council offices.

In 2013, developers brought forward a proposal to create a modular home park at the site that has been serviced since the mid-1970s when it was designated as a possible auto mile for car dealerships.

Council however, rejected a zoning application after nearby industrial firms objected saying it would hamper any further expansion and operations to have residential units so close.

At that time, business owners nearby said efforts needed to be made to make it more attractive to highway commercial development.

Patrick Quinlan, managing partner of Sun City Ford, said now the addition of a second major commercial development on the stretch will be good for the area.

“For the Brier Park area, but any type of industrial and commercial growth in Medicine Hat itself is awesome,” he said. “The traffic that it’ll bring, and the additional stoppage (of travellers), as a business owner I’m excited about it.”

This year the city will also construct portions of the northwest storm sewer trunkline and the Brier Park sanitary sewer bypass on sections of Saamis Drive.

That will make for a busy, hectic summer, said Quinlan, but could also improve access and increase traffic on Saamis Drive, which so far is used mostly as a connector between Third Street NW and Box Springs Road.

It’s the second major project announced for the Box Springs group in 2018. Last month Aurora Cannabis announced plans to built a 1.2-million square-foot marijuana growing facility on 70 acres of the park north of the Canalta Centre.

In late March, Hut 8 Cryptocurrency signed a lease for city-owned land north of the park boundary.

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