(File Photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Business investing

North Battleford sells business opportunity in B.C.

Feb 14, 2025 | 2:00 PM

The future of development in North Battleford is looking “very positive” following a successful trip by a delegation from the City of North Battleford and Red Pheasant to the International Council of Shopping Centers Marketplace Show in Whistler, British Columbia.

“We were able to connect with first of all, developers from all across Canada to talk about what’s happening in development in cities,” said Mayor Kelli Hawtin of the delegation that included Jan Swanson, economic development manager.

“We were able to learn a bit about trends. Trends not only in construction but trends in zoning, trends in retail,” she said, pointing to the recent losses in the city including Peavey Mart.

“The whole retail world is shifting in fact,” she added, noting they also learned the city is not unique in its struggles.

Over two and a half days in late January, the delegation connected with franchise brokers and heard about opportunities particularly in the food service industry.

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“They’re really interested in expanding into markets our size, but they don’t have necessarily franchisee enquiries,” Hawtin said.

“We kind of know there’s now opportunities; we know that there are developers in our community that are ready to build more space for example for these types of opportunities.”

One of the chains they heard from included Firehouse Subs, which is looking to expand in communities the size of North Battleford all over the country.

“We also connected with a lot of other communities, some our size and some a little bit larger,” she said.

“We heard from a lot of other communities, some our size and some a little bit larger, but we heard from these other western Canadian cities specifically that have seen significant value of attending this convention year after year, because they do see the development come in following convention, they see retail – retailers – set up space or just a variety of opportunities.”

The event brought owners, vendors and tenants in industries that also include health and wellness, entertainment, and an earmarked budget of $4,000. Hawtin explained that the communities they met with all had populations of roughly 30,000 and they all saw tangible results.

Among the companies they made connections with included Popeye’s Chicken, TJX and Pattison Foods.

“We’re pretty new to this game if you will, we have attended these conventions in the past,” she said.

“We’re starting to establish some of those relationships and ensure that some of these companies, developers, they know us, they know the City of North Battleford. They know we’re interested in development; they know that we’re actively seeking interest in our community and that we’re actively seeking growth.”

With Red Pheasant Cree Nation and TerraCap also in attendance, it added another level to being at the convention.

“We weren’t only there to promote North Battleford on our own, but we were there supporting those companies as they look for more lease holders as well,” Hawtin said.

“Is there opportunity for partnership? We’re always trying to work together and that’s exactly what we were doing there.”

The experience was not just productive, Hawtin said there was a lot of open dialogue.

“We were just really able to talk to all of these companies about North Battleford, which was really, really great,” she said.

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: juleslovett.bsky.social