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Commercial project coming to former vacant lot

Jul 8, 2016 | 2:00 PM

Work on a new commercial development in a vacant lot could begin as soon as fall in downtown North Battleford, but residents will have to wait a while before finding out what it is.

A large sold sign has appeared in a portion of the gravel-covered lot facing Railway Ave. across from the courthouse, and that part of the lot has been barricaded off.

Jim Puffalt, city manager, confirmed a commercial project is planned for the site.

“We’ve sold some land and we expect to make an announcement next week for a pretty major development for downtown,” he said.

The lot is part of the King St. Station concept plan developed in the 1990s as a downtown revitalization project. A new liquor store was built, but the adjacent lots have remained vacant and are used as gravel-surfaced parking lots.

“Part of that concept was that there be land around the paved parking lot that would be developed. It took a little while, but we finally (made) it happen,” Puffalt explained.

The city posted “for sale” signs in late 2015 and in May the city monitored downtown parking conditions while the lot was closed for three weeks for maintenance

“We’ve worked really hard on it for quite some time. It’s exciting to have it all come to fruition,” Puffalt said. “I think people are going to be pretty thrilled when they see what’s coming.”

 

Geoff Smith is battlefordsNOW’s News Director, business and agriculture reporter. He can be reached at gsmith@jpbg.ca or tweet him @smithco. Concerns regarding this story can be addressed to Geoff at 306-446-6397.