Mayor Linnsie Clark receives a high-five during a ceremonial sod turning Friday at Souhtlands Corner, where a new commercial plaza is being developed by local firm Daas Developments near S. Boundary Road and Southlands Blvd.--News photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Work on a new commercial and professional office plaza in south Medicine Hat is underway, filling a lot left vacant for more than 10 years and giving a physical signal of a recovery that officials say is underway in the development community.
The first building of “Southlands Commons” will become the new practice of local dentist Matthew Gibb and partners who were looking for space they could customize and use for the long term.
“We’d outgrown our space … the pandemic slowed (the project) down a bit, but people still have teeth and we still have to look after them,” he said after helping turn the ceremonial first shovel of dirt Friday.
That event included officials from Daas Developments, Midway Design and Construction, realtors, Invest Medicine Hat and Mayor Linnsie Clark.
The foundation for a 6,000 square-foot dental office however, is already in place, ready to be framed this winter.
Two similar buildings could be started on the 2.6-acre site next summer.
Eventually a fourth, 10,500 square-foot, multiple bay building would complete the project that was billed a commercial condo arrangement with professional and retail space likely for lease as well.
“It’ll be 28,000 square feet of commercial buildings that we’ll be building,” said Dave Reinheller of Daas development. “It looks very promising and you’ve got to keep pushing ahead.”
His firm signed a conditional deal on the lot in late 2019 with the city’s land department and it was marketed Source 1 Realty.
Prior to that the site, at the corner of S. Boundary Road and Southlands Boulevard, sat vacant for about 10 years while the adjacent residential district grew up and the regional commercial district nearby developed.
The “neighbourhood commercial district” is one of several sites seeing activity at present.
Near the site, work is proceeding on a new seniors apartment complex that has a substantial construction crane on site near Strachan Road.
“It’s very exciting to see activity,” said Clark. “I know everyone is ready to sort of break out of the pandemic and get back to work.”
Invest Medicine Hat stated earlier this month that building permit figures from the first nine months of 2021 were about one-and-a-half times higher than the previous year, taking them to pre-pandemic levels. Detailed figures were not released, but it stated total permits issued as 677 to that point in 2021, worth about $97 million in construction value. That’s compared to fewer than 600 permits to September 2020 worth $36 million.
