Saskatoon News July 7, 2013

Next Place To Invest? Maybe Dundurn? Megamall!

Dundurn, Saskatchewan. Dundurn Megamall? Who would have thought that our little military town in Saskatchewan could be home to a massive megamall. Dundurn is located approximately 20 minutes from Saskatoon and only 5 minutes to Blackstrap Provincial Park and has less than 700 residents yet it appears it will be home to a 1,000,000 square foot megamall which is over 10x larger than the Midtown Plaza in Saskatoon. The first phase will be 300,000 and the 2nd and 3rd phases will add the other 700,000.

The Dundurn Exhibition Centre will be the first of its kind here in Canada and is getting a lot of support from local community leaders. President of Brightenview Development Inc, Joe Zhou, along with Tim LeClair, President of SREDA (Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority) and Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison are on their way to China to show their support.

Brightenview is comprised of Canadians of Chinese and European background. Some have backgrounds in business and marketing in North America but little to no experience in China while they have other people in China with no experience in Canada. Brightenview is a private company and they are the ones paying for the project and the money is Canadian, not government or other so they are not asking for grants.

One of the questions as a Saskatoon real estate agent I get is if this will be like the West Edmonton Mall. The answer, sadly for those of us who love to shop, is no. This is not a retail shopping centre with clothing and shoe stores that us ladies love. This is a wholesale market for manufacturer’s to sell to buyers in a more direct way. I know of a few Saskatoon home builders who go to China to purchase products such as granite, quartz etc for their construction projects so this will likely eliminate the need to travel there.

A concern that I have heard from people is that it will not be easy for locals to purchase there due to language and cultural differences. The good news is that the project developers expect 350 Chinese Entrepreneurs to open up shop here but each of them has to hire at least 2 Canadians, as required by Saskatchewan’s immigrant entrepreneur program. Other workers will come as regular immigrants.

Apparently the units, starting with 350 of them, will be sold like condominiums and there is a lot of interest from vendors already from China.

With Dundurn expected to get busy the only role that the government may have in this development is to provide and interchange on  Highway 11 to accommodate the anticipated traffic but that won’t happen anytime soon. This would be a great time to invest in Saskatoon but even a better time to invest in Dundurn. I happen to have a house for sale in Dundurn right now that could be a great investment before things get crazy in the next few years.

If you are thinking about buying a house for sale in Saskatoon or surrounding communities give me a call. If you would like to look at putting your house for sale in Saskatoon or surrounding area get in touch with me as I would be happy to go over my services as a trusted and experienced Saskatoon REALTOR(R) and how I differ from the majority.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
Kari@saskatoonrealestate.net