Brightenview will break ground this fall and take between 18 and 24 months to complete the project according to CEO Joe Zhou, who dismissed the many skeptics.
"The train has left the station," Zhou told reporters. "There is no turning around."
He said that many of the 350 commercial suites, sold as condos rather than leased, have already been "spoken for," and projected that hundreds of Chinese and Asian businesspeople 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 likely paid from $1,000 to $2,000 per acre for the approximately 160 acres of Dundurn-area farmland that's set to house the project. They also note similar prices can be found much closer to the Saskatoon airport, which lies north of the city.
Announcement of the proposal has spurred some hopeful local landowners to test the market, with one 100-acre parcel 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, besides asking not to be named, noted that the tiny town lacks the infrastructure and workforce that will apparently be needed for a project of this size.
"The economics just don't seem to make sense," agreed David Williams, an associate professor of marketing at Saskatoon's Edward School of Business.
"The scale of such a project in the middle of nowhere makes me skeptical," Williams added.
from Western Investor June 2013
