The largest shopping centre in Canada is being proposed for tiny - population 640 - Dundurn, Saskatchewan as China-based Brightenview Development says it plans to bring hundreds of Asian manufacturers direct to the North American heartland.
But questions are swirling about the scale and location of the Dundurn International Exhibition Centre, designed to cover 6.4 million square feet - about three times the size of West Edmonton Mall - with 350 outlets in a town 40 km. south of Saskatoon.
The plan "came right of the blue" according to Saskatoon real estate sources.
The gigantic project apparently has the official blessing of the Saskatchewan and local governments, however.
Plans call for a $130 million retail and wholesale centre that will link Chinese and other Asian manufacturers to wholesale buyers in North America. And it is all being done without any government incentives, though is projected to create 1,000 jobs, according to the developer. Brightenview said it will even donate funds for a new $7.5 million Dundurn community centre.
Brightenview will break ground on the project this fall and it will take 18 to 24 months to complete, said CEO Joe Zhou, who dismissed the many skeptics. "The train has left the station," Zhou told reporters. "There is no turning around."
Zhou said many of the 350 commercial suites, sold as condos rather than leased, have already been "spoken for." He projected that hundreds of Chinese and Asian business people and their families will move to the Dundurn area in the coming years. Saskatchewan has an immigrant nominee program that allows relatively fast and easy immigration for entrepreneurs.
Local real estate brokers estimate that Brightenview would have paid from $1,000 to $2,000 per acre for the approximately 160 acres of Dundurn-area farmland that is to house the project, but they note that similar prices can be found much closer to the Saskatoon airport, which is north of the city. Announcement of the proposal has spurred some hopeful local landowners to test the market with higher prices: one 100-acre parcel is now listed at $500,000. Serviced residential building lots are being offered at an average of $50,000.
"Why Dundurn for such a big project?," asked one veteran realtor who asked not to be named, noting the tiny town lacks the infrastructure and the workforce that would apparently be needed for a project of this size. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said.
