Penhold is proudly heralding its new downtown core and it's still getting bigger.
Last month on Feb. 26, the town's Municipal Planning Commission approved plans for a commercial strip mall that will be built this year alongside three other recently completed projects on the south side of Hawkridge Boulevard along Highway 2A.
“People are starting to wake up and see the explosion in growth,” said Mayor Dennis Cooper. “The big excitement about us right now is that we are creating a downtown core. The town didn't really have a downtown core before. Now we are creating one on the main drag on Highway 2A.”
The new strip mall has a building permit value of $1.7 million and will have floor space of 12,670 square feet. It is not yet known what new businesses it will house.
Rick Binnendyk, the town's chief administrative officer, said the strip mall is a good fit with the three other new buildings, with more room still available for further commercial development.
“It is creating a retail sector for us. We had planned for it over the last number of years and it is coming about with the commercial strip mall along Highway 2A,” said Binnendyk. “There is still more land available but it is filling in nicely, actually faster then we anticipated.”
The addition of the strip mall to the three other commercial buildings is expected to give the community an added economic boost. Last month, Subway, the town's first franchise restaurant, opened. Its opening is being followed by a new pharmacy, walk-in clinic, dental office, real estate outlet and a grocery story.
The rapid commercial growth in Penhold is also sure to stifle urges by locals to head to either Red Deer or Innisfail to do their shopping, said Cooper.
“It causes people to take a second look, now that we have a pharmacy and grocery story, a walk-in clinic and dentist office,” said Cooper, adding at least 7,000 cars a day pass through town which gives visitors new options to stop and stay in town, as well as giving extra incentive to entrepreneurs to consider construction in the community. “This is a reason why everybody had to drive to either Innisfail or Red Deer before. Now they can shop locally.”
Meanwhile, town officials are convinced more good economic news will soon come, in light of continued residential growth in the community that includes the 42-lot Palisades development at the extreme south end of town, a planned 51-lot high-density Hawkridge development across from the town's multiplex, and a 23-lot low-density development in the same quarter section of land as the Hawkridge project.
“It is difficult to say what will come about,” said Binnendyk, when asked if the town's rapid residential growth will trigger even more commercial expansion. “There is a high school being wrapped up and all kinds of residential being built. There seems to be a fair bit of interest. We don't know until we actually see a permit come forward.”
