Red Deer is also a hub for the oil and gas sector in this province, and that industry is again on the upswing, judging by high demand for everything from new serviced land to existing shop space.
"There's a lot of optimism. In the oil and gas sector, there's a lot of people gearing up for substantial increases in business," suggested Moore, who cites demand for new space in places like Queens Business Park on the west side of the QE2 Highway to make his point.
Industrial
The first 108-acre phase in that city-developed subdivision is already about 97 per cent sold, according to Amber Haustein, the city's economic development specialist, and another phase for the project is in the area structure plan approval stage.
Industrial lots in the business park hit the market in 2012 and initially sold for $300,000 an acre and up, while commercial land was tagged at a base price of $425,000. Expect those numbers to move up in subsequent phases, though Haustein isn't sure just where the base price will land.
The park has been particularly attractive to oilpatch businesses needing shop/office space and plenty of room for storage of equipment and products.
She says sales of manufactured goods produced in the city hit $5 billion in 2010, and $313 million of that was equipment.
"We like to say that we manufacture virtually every [oil well] component here in Red Deer," Haustein explained.
Given its location, it's also fair to say that Red Deer's growth will be powered not only by the oil and gas sector, but by businesses in transportation and logistics as well as value-added agricultural production, which has long been one of the staples of the community, mostly through meat processing.
Creative class
Haustein also says there's growth in the creative-class service industry, with more stores, shops, restaurants and entertainment outlets catering to the city's comparatively young (median age 34.7) population. Alberta's median age is 36.
"We're seeing an uptick, especially in the downtown core, of those kinds of businesses setting up shop," she explained.
On the human-services front, Red Deer is poised to grow as a health-care services provider. The new Central Alberta Cancer Centre is expected to open its doors in 2013 as part of the expanded Red Deer Regional Hospital complex.
That means central Alberta residents seeking cancer treatment will have one less reason to head to Calgary or Edmonton. The cancer centre will provide services not only to local residents, but those in-between Alberta's two principal cities.
Red Deer College is another major economic driver for the city and, more recently, for its downtown with the opening of its campus there for the Donald School of Business in Millennium Centre in 2011.
"They opened up their Donald School of Business, and it's been fantastic to see young people from that 18-to-24-year-old demographic shopping downtown and looking for more activities," said Haustein.
Another addition in the past several years has been the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing, which opened its doors in 2009 and works not only with local manufacturers but with clients from around the world.
The centre was developed in response to the need for highly skilled employees in the local manufacturing sector, and its opening came after a $59 million financial commitment from the province to four new centres at the college.
Downtown improvements have also been gradually phased in, with major work completed on the Little Gaetz streetscape and an openness to things like partial street closures for summer patios on Ross Street.
Landlord friendly
Housing wise, the resurgence of the Red Deer economy is reflected in both the City of Red Deer's building-permit numbers and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) data.
CMHC's fall survey for 2012 found Red Deer's apartment vacancy rate to have fallen to 1.2 per cent from 3.2 per cent a year earlier. More notably, perhaps, Red Deer suddenly has the lowest vacancy rate of any Alberta centre with a population over 50,000.
Monthly two-bedroom apartment rents climbed last fall to about $867.
Meanwhile, new building activity in the city was up sharply in 2012, hitting $268.1 million: a 60 per cent increase over 2011.
Permit values topped the 2008 boom-era total of $257 million for the first time in four years, and residential values were up about 18 per cent from that benchmark year to $115.9 million over 1,224 permits.
Housing starts
Housing starts this year in Red Deer were also up, with the Canadian Home Builders' Association reporting 40 single-family and 144 multi-family starts in the first two months of 2013.
The average central Alberta residential property had a sales price of around $287,000 in February, according to the Central Alberta Realtors Association. Red Deer remains relatively affordable for employers looking to draw staff from Alberta's two largest centres.
Commercial
On the commercial real estate side, Red Deer might best be characterized as "healthy."
"A 4 per cent commercial vacancy rate, combined with a relatively small change in the vacancy rate since 2012, indicates that the market is very stable and that there is strong demand for commercial space in Red Deer," according to Mike Garcelon, CEO of Soderquist Appraisals Ltd.
from Western Investor May 2013
