Crescent Heights business development welcome

Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News

Before Darlene and Edgar Stricker opened Posh Wash in the Northland Market Place, Crescent Heights residents looking for a laundromat had to trek across the river.

Now, nearly a year after Posh Wash first opened, Darlene says customers still thank her for setting up a business in the north end of the city.

“There's so little shopping on this end of town," she says. “People in Crescent Heights are so thankful for having services up here.”

Though Medicine Hat Co-Op has operated in the area since 2001, much of the growth in the Northlands area is far more recent.

Northland Market Place - a strip-mall that also houses a takeout pizza place, hairdresser, chiropractic centre and video rental store, among others - celebrated its grand opening in September of 2009.

Across the street, a new Shopper’s Drug Mart outlet built by Hopewell Development Corporation opened for business in January 2010.

Richard Glubish, director of retail leasing for Hopewell Development Corporation,

says the company is still seeking tenants for its next development, a neighbourhood shopping centre called Northpointe Crossing.

"We're working with food service providers, in the form of full service, sit-down restaurants as well as quick-service," Glubish says, though he won’t disclose the names of any potentially interested businesses.

The company has also secured a deal to build an Alberta Treasury branch in the area. Construction is expected to begin this spring.

Mayor Norm Boucher says he could see the Northlands expanding much the same way Southridge has, so long as the city puts some emphasis on the area.

“There are some businesses that are interested in going to the north side,” he says, “so I think we have to facilitate that, and make that as appealing as possible."

Darlene Stricker says she’s hoping the next wave of development will bring a restaurant and bar to the area, as well as some sort of shopping mall or department store. And in her opinion, business owners have “tremendous” opportunity on the city’s north side.

“It's getting to be that there's almost half the city on this side (of the river),” she says, “but three quarters of the shopping over on that side."

REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community — 27

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