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Open for business: new stores, restaurants opening up in Red Deer’s Timberlands neighbourhood

Elephant and Castle opens for the first time, Central Alberta Co-op set to open later this week
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Heather Sontag pours a pint at the new Elephant and Castle restaurant and pub in Timberlands, which opened on Monday. (Photo by MURRAY CRAWFORD/Advocate staff)

Sprouting up rather quickly, businesses at the new Timberlands Market are starting to open their doors.

On Monday, the new Elephant and Castle pub, the first in Alberta, opened for the first time.

Owner/partner Trevor Rowden was at the pub’s opening Monday.

“We’re very excited,” he said. “It’s the first, brand new Elephant and Castle in a few years.

“People are stumbling in. We weren’t sure what to expect. We have upgraded ingredients and more variety.”

The restaurant and pub offers traditional British pub food with a modern twist, Rowden said.

But, the anchor tenant of the new development is a more than 40,000-square foot Central Alberta Co-op food store, which will open on Friday.

Gerald Hiebert, Central Alberta Co-op general manager said it will be their largest development.

“Everybody is pumped,” he said. “We can’t wait to open the doors.”

The food store will have a wide range of offerings including a full service meat counter, live sushi, a noodle bowl kitchen, in-store baked and deli items, curry bowls and more ready-to-eat products.

Environmental initiatives were also undertaken including low flow toilets, LED lighting and keeping refrigerated items behind doors.

“Sustainability was considered throughout the project,” said Hiebert. “Affordable and realistic sustainability.”

The Co-op will also have a gas station and a liquor store on site. Hiebert said the liquor store will feature a tasting room where they plan on hosting events.

Other committed tenants include a Motion Fitness, Pet Value, Cob’s Bread, Freshii, Herc’s Nutrition, Massage Addict and Papa John’s.

Developed by Calgary-based Developments 2, the project which boasts 200,000-square feet of buildings along 30th Avenue at Timberlands Drive. The market is at the entrance to the developing Timberlands neighbourhood.

The whole area of 30th Avenue and 67th Street is experiencing a construction boom as St. Joseph’s High School at the northeast corner of the intersection is expected to be ready for next September. When completed, there will be three high schools in that corner of the intersection as both a public and a francophone school are expected to be built.

The Timberlands neighbourhood continues to grow and the proposed Evergreen neighbourhood, north of Timberlands, will be developed by Melcor Developments as primarily a residential area.

Melcor will also have room to grow the Clearview Market, located on the west side of 30th Avenue. With the completion of the roundabout, there is additional room from where there was once a roadway.

mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com