Commercial construction carries on in Airdrie during sketchy economy

The sounds of construction ring out across south west Airdrie.  The plaza known as Cooper’s Town Promenade is in mid-build and right on schedule, taking up five-hectares of land in the upscale neighbourhood of Cooper’s Crossing.

WestMark Holding Ltd., developer of the commercial project destined to open next year, is planning for Airdrie’s future and the current economic situation is just a distraction.

Paul Gerla, the general manager of the firm, told the local newspaper that he had a vision to create an exciting shopping experience in that end of the city and is prepared to see it through. Cooper’s Town Promenade will have a grocery store and other recession-proof businesses such as a day care and medical services. These are resilient businesses that will produce traffic for other tenants in the plaza. WestMark hopes to attract boutique-style retailers, coffee shops and new restaurants.

It will be a premier destination for the Airdrie community of Cooper’s Crossing as well as other communities up and along 8 St SW as well as 40 Ave SW, both very vibrant and energetic residential and commercial corridors on the city’s south end where more than 10,000 people live within a kilometre radius.  When the nearby Airdrie communities are completely built that number should rise to 20,000.

WestMark has partnered with Ronmore Developers Inc. who is in charge of the design and construction co-ordination.  The new promenade will be an open-air shopping plaza in keeping with the upscale nature of Cooper’s Crossing.  It will be one of those attractive shopping plazas that passers-by will want to stop and check out.

Two design elements that will easy traffic flow and bring more people into the space are the immediate connection with the nearby park and the road navigation in, out and even within the shopping centre.

WestMark is proceeding with its developers with optimism, an attribute that city officials say seems to be prevalent in Airdrie.

In fact, Airdrie’s economic development office just released a report that says local commercial firms have kept at least 87% of staff.  Of the 76 Airdrie firms which participated in the city’s survey, 25% said they are still hiring and 13% indicated they have had to lay people off.

Kent Rupert, economic development team leader for the City of Airdrie said his department has been watching new business licenses coming in and said activity has been “fairly decent”.  It’s no surprise that business continues to grow in the city, as Alberta Venture Magazine rated Airdrie as one of our nation’s best places to open a business.  A growing population, relatively low taxes and partnership programs with the City are just some of the reason’s why.

It’s not just Cooper’s Town Promenade that is going gang busters.  Sierra Springs next to the highway is still growing with more stores and services scheduled to open early next year.  Another commercial district is on the books for 8 St SW in Airdrie’s Midtown neighbourhood.  Appropriately called Midtown Plaza there will be some light-density development and as many as 800 residential units when it’s all wrapped up.   This area will be a nice addition to Creekside Crossing as well as Bayside Village and will feature more restaurants, more coffee shops and retail shopping experiences.

Kings View Market over on the east side of Airdrie opened in 2010 but there is more development taking place with the addition of 332,000 square feet of commercial space available for lease.

City officials say the vacancy rate for commercial space is about 2.6 %.  With all the new developments coming on stream in the next 12 months that might rise to 4.5% but still a manageable number.

If anything has slowed down within the last year it has been industrial projects. Part of this issue has been lack of physical space within the city limits; however, the city says that should all change within the next few years.