Residential developers have more than potential demand to spur building plans. Moose Jaw offers generous incentives for both landlords and home buyers.
Perhaps the most alluring is a grant program for landlords who agree to build rental homes in a city with one of the lowest vacancy rates in Western Canada.
The incentives include a rental construction incentive that can provide developers with a grant of up to $50,000 if they agree to build at least five rental suites. A total of 60 units are being funded, on a first-come, first-serve basis, with an emphasis on two-bedroom units.
According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Moose Jaw's rental vacancy rate for two-bedroom apartments is near zero.
Under Saskatchewan's Headstart for Homes program, builders and developers are eligible for loans of 90 per cent of the construction cost of new homes, including land. The main requirement: the new homes must be priced at or lower than the average resale home price, which in Moose Jaw is around $300,000.
Grants of up to $10,000 are also available to first-time home buyers with annual incomes of less than $60,000, who purchase a new home (usually a condominium). And Moose Jaw provides a 100 per cent tax exemption on property for a year for commercial building owners who create a residential rental suite - a move aimed at encouraging mixed-used projects in the downtown area.
"Moose Jaw is investment ready," Thorn said.
Industrial
And not just on the residential side.
A short drive east of Moose Jaw, a significant industrial investment already exists. The existing industrial cluster includes one of the largest nitrogen-based fertilizer-production facilities in all of Western Canada, as well as a potash mine, a salt production plant, a phosphate distribution centre and an ethanol plant. Another fertilizer plant is currently being built in what is known as the South Central Industrial Corridor.
The corridor is the largest economic region in the province, accounting for a quarter of Saskatchewan's annual gross domestic product. About one-quarter of Saskatchewan's population (240,000) lives in the corridor, providing access to the largest workforce in the province.
Moose Jaw is also the CPR terminus of the Soo Line, providing a direct link to Minneapolis and Chicago, and is home to the largest main-line refuelling facility on CPR's North American network.
The corridor has one of the lowest-cost environments for industrial investment in North America, according to a study by KPMG.
Major industrial employers include Mosaic Co., Canadian Salt Co., Terra Grain Fuels and Thunder Creek Pork Plant.
Moose Jaw itself has several industrial sites in its Grayson Business Park that are pre-priced and pre-approved - "a no-dicker sticker approach," as Thorn calls it - under a 19-lot pilot sales program.
"It has really generated a lot of discussion and [we] are moving to pre-price all the lands in Grayson so they can be sold with the stroke of a cheque by a developer," Thorn said.
An example of pricing: a near-acre lot sells for $110,033 and has a development levy of $32,320, for a total price of $242,353. There are small lots from approximately 26,000 square feet, with a total price from $81,000 each.
Buyers of the first 10 parcels within the pilot project receive full two-year 100 per cent tax exemption, subject to the issuance of building permits within six months of the purchases.
As well, buyers of industrial lots at the greenfield site receive a free Phase 1 environmental assessment at the time of sale.
New retail
The big buzz on the streets of the Moose this summer, however, is retail, not industrial.
In early May, Colliers International announced the construction is to start on the $25 million Civic Centre Plaza on the site of the iconic "crushed can" - the former civic centre sports arena's nickname.
The Civic Centre Plaza will include 72,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space. Site preparation is expected to start this summer, with a goal of opening next spring.
"What we're trying to do is use the natural esthetics of the golf course next door and make that part of the overall plan," said Bill Babey of Colliers.
While the old civic centre was demolished to make way for the new development, the design pays tribute to the former landmark through the main building on the commercial site, according to Rod Ziegler of Walker Projects, architects of the development.
"For me this is just an opportunity to take an icon and create a new icon. The shape - I've always loved the shape - and I believed from day one that the shape should be maintained. The 'crushed can' look, created in the massive curtain wall overlooking the golf course, is just tremendous," Ziegler said.
New hospital
Another key construction project in Moose Jaw is the new $103.8 million regional hospital, being built by Graham Group Ltd. of Regina. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2013, with the hospital expected to open in 2015.
Moose Jaw is also home to the SAIT Pallisar Institute, a trade college from which approximately 2,500 students graduate each year.
Tourism
While Moose Jaw continues to rely on farming and potash as its main economic engine, the tourism sector is steadily gaining ground. Many travellers along the Trans-Canada Highway stop to photograph Mac, the world's largest moose.
Standing 32 feet high and weighing10 tonnes, Mac the Moose was the city's first tourist attraction and still draws the curious.
Today, Mac competes for tourists with Moose Jaw's famous tunnels (rumoured once a conduit for illegal liquor), the four-star Temple Garden Mineral Spa resort and Casino Moose Jaw, which is open seven days a week and is located right next to Temple Garden in the downtown core.
from Western Investor July 2012
