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Liberty Park’s prospects persuade developer to pursue office building

Despite Red Deer County’s ambitious plans for Liberty Park, constructing an office building in the relatively undeveloped area of Gasoline Alley might be considered a bit of a gamble.
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Work is nearing completion on a 15

Despite Red Deer County’s ambitious plans for Liberty Park, constructing an office building in the relatively undeveloped area of Gasoline Alley might be considered a bit of a gamble.

But Al Laplante likes the prospects there.

His Polar Creek Industries Inc. is developing an office building on Laura Avenue, with the two-storey 15,200-square-foot building nearly complete.

“Time will tell,” he said, when asked if the location is a good one.

However, Laplante has been impressed with the pace of development in the area and anticipates this trend will continue.

“Certainly in the next five years, I think it will continue to grow and expand dramatically.”

Particularly for occupants like oil and gas companies, which benefit from easy access to transportation routes like Hwy 2 and don’t really need to operate in a city, the building should be attractive, suggested Laplante. ConocoPhillips Canada has leased an adjacent building on Laura Avenue, he pointed out.

The large lot also offers plenty of room for vehicles, like the trucks and other equipment used in the oilpatch, said Laplante.

“I doubled the parking that is required in the city of Red Deer.”

Demand for office space was not high when work on the building began last summer. But construction costs were lower then and Laplante thinks the local appetite for such premises has grown since.

“I would say in the last two months it’s picked up considerably,” he said, adding that his condominiumized building is somewhat unique.

“It’ll be the first condo-office project in Red Deer in quite some time that could be sold or leased.”

Laplante said he’s reluctant to sell or lease space in 1,500-square-foot pieces now because that could limit options for bigger occupants in the future. He considers the building’s best use to be as office space, but has received other inquiries.

“I had one dental specialist that was looking at it.”

Davin Kemshead of Century 21 Advantage Commercial is the listing agent for the building.

hrichards@www.reddeeradvocate.com