Progress is once again being made on a project that had long been considered an eyesore in Athabasca.
Siding started to go up at the River View Station last month and, though work is slow, it is moving forward.
“It’s where I would expect things to be happening,” said Neil Cameron, one of the owners of the building that sits on a prominent corner of downtown.
“It’s a going concern and it’s in progress.”
With construction restarting, it didn’t come as a surprise that another request to extend the development permit was received at last Tuesday’s town council meeting.
Council granted the request, extending the permit until Oct. 30.
However, with the slow progress of the construction, council placed some conditions on the permit extension.
“The caveat on that, would be we would like the exterior finished by the River Rats festival in June,” said chief administrative officer Josh Pyrcz.
The permit was previously extended back in July and expired on Dec. 31, meaning council needed to hand out another extension in order to keep work going on the retail development.
Groundbreaking for the approximately 5,000 sq. ft. building took place in August of 2011, and that was already delayed by engineering issues.
Back in November, Cameron stated he was working with some contractors to get the outside of the building completed as soon as possible. He also hoped having the outside done would make it easier to find potential tenants.
At the time, he added one of the eight commercial spaces in the building had been spoken for.
As the River View Station development also sits in a direct control district, the design of the building was subject to approval by town council as recommended by its Design Review Committee, which has caused some of the problems and delays in getting work done on the project.
Cameron added in his interview last week that tenants will likely be allowed into the building by spring or early summer.
“I’m very pleased to see the recent progress and the support from the community,” he said.
“People (are) glad that sidings is coming on and (they are) able to see what the building’s going to look like.”
He believes that the building will be a “cornerstone” in the community when it’s completed.
“I’m pleased with what’s been happening to date and looking forward to having it completed.”
