Deerland Equipment is shooting for September to finish the first stage of the Landing Park Development.
This story started around 2013, when Brett Yakimetz and Dave Austin from Deerland bought land just east of Athabasca. The plan was to build a new John Deere dealership.
“There was no land that we could buy in town that was suitable, so we looked at that quarter section and said ‘OK, this is what we'll buy,’” said Yakimetz. “Then we had lots of interest from other individuals wanting to purchase land from us on the highway.”
Then they hit the ground running with great support, he says, from the town.
“The town's been great to work with. They've got a lot of foresight. Some smaller communities don't want to see development and these guys have been very good about it,” he said. “They're extremely helpful and we couldn't have asked for a better bunch of people to work with.”
According to Josh Pyrcz, Athabasca’s chief administrative officer, getting it up and moving so quickly is “reflective of the attitude of the administration at this point.”
“That is, to facilitate development where we can and where it makes sense, and to ensure that we're not holding up the process and to ensure that we're considered a development friendly town,” he said.
The new development, he says, will be great for the community.
“Anytime you see that type of growth in a smaller community like this, you know there's going to be a ton of spin-off benefit,” he said. “We're really looking forward to working with Deerland in any future endeavours they might have up there with their land, and getting the services in and seeing those new jobs created in the community.”
Deerland got rid of the layer of topsoil last fall and there’s a crew currently working on getting the roads ready. The next step will be putting in the gutters and curbs, which they hope will be in by mid-July.
“That all goes well, if we're lucky we might be done this thing by the middle of August. That's if things go really, really well,” said Yakimetz. “So, we're kind of shooting for mid-September. It all depends on the weather. If the weather cooperates, we might be able to get done sooner.”
He can’t yet say what businesses are planning on opening up in the area, as the names haven’t officially been released, but he can say they’ve had interest from restaurants and retail businesses.
“It's all highway commercial that we're doing in the development. That's what it's zoned for.”
He hopes that they can announce the businesses within the next couple weeks, but it depends on the companies themselves.
