Spruce Grove, the suburban city just west of Edmonton, recently announced not only that it's coming off a great building year in 2012, but that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has placed it ahead of its similar-sized Capital Region neighbours for the current year in housing starts. It was trailing only Edmonton and much-larger Strathcona County in mid-March.
The good start to 2013 follows a 2012 that saw the Highway 16 city issue permits for 674 new dwelling units. Its permit total was up 19 per cent from a very healthy 2011.
Based on development permits issued in 2012, Spruce Grove is counting on over 500 housing starts again this year.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Strathcona County has landed a significant development on Edmonton's east side: a $900 million Williams Energy plant.
Williams was considering locating in Sturgeon County, which rings the north side of Edmonton and St. Albert, but instead opted for Strathcona as the location for its future propane-dehydrogenation plant. The plant converts propane to propylene, used in the manufacturing of plastics.
The company's new plant, the first of its kind in Canada, could be complete in 2016, giving Strathcona, in Alberta's industrial heartland, another significant employer and tax source.
from Western Investor May 2013
