The 2007 spring construction season is in full swing in Slave Lake with builders, cement trucks, earth moving, leveling, and compacting machinery in high gear in nearly every quadrant. “It’s great!” says the Town’s Supervisor of Planning and Development Laurie Skrynyk. She says that by the end of April she’d issued about $2.7 million worth of development permits. That’s down substantially from the $9.7 million worth of permits she endorsed last year. However, for one reason or another, many of those projects didn’t go ahead, she added.
In fact, when all is said and done, the supervisor expects construction projects completed in 2007 will be “about the same as last year.
“It’s going to be another good year,” Skrynyk says.
Projects well on their way include the work that’s continuing on condominiums at the north end of Main Street, near Schurter School.
Those are the work of Aspen Developments. Company spokesperson Wendy Hutchison says after a ‘long winter’ of construction and finishing, developers are beginning to see the fruits of their labour. The units have begun to sell like hotcakes, and Hutchison says developers’ decision offer something for everyone appears to be paying off.
Condominiums are a relatively new concept in Slave Lake but one that appears to be catching on. Hutchison says Aspen has built about half the 43 units proposed, and sold about half of those. Buyers range from young and single to those with young families and even retirees, she says. Just as varied as the buyers are the options – from bungalows to bi-level and two storey units with one, two or three bedrooms. The walls in all the units are of the nine-foot variety and the windows are very large, offering an open and spacious aura.
“We didn’t want to ‘cookie cut’” and end up with as collection of homes that were exact replicas of their neighbours, she said.
The units come with six appliances for the most part, but that’s where the similarities end. The colour schemes as well as counter and floor surfaces are as different as their owners are, and developers have even customized units for some of their buyers.
The condominium concept “is very new for Slave Lake,” says Hutchison. But she expects buyers and potential owners will quickly warm to the idea of having no grass to cut and no sidewalks or driveways to clean. Even shingles and siding are the responsibility of the condominium association, she adds.
The developers expect to start construction of the second half of their project later this year.

More duplexes – and a hotel
Across the street and up the block on 6th Ave. N.W., early work has begun on two duplexes, one on either side of the four-plexes on the 100 block. Those are the work of contractors for Nova Hotels group, the same company that’s proposing to build a new hotel across from the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre in the southwest quadrant, says Skrynyk.


Industrial too
Still further west – along Caribou Trail — another construction project is just the beginning of more and better things to come, according to Sonny Driedger, owner of Sonny’s Trucking and the property in question.
The 7,500-sq-ft building currently under construction will be used for storage, he told The Leader last week. Sometime in the coming year, builders also will erect a maintenance shop to service the 40-50 logging trucks that the company owns.
When that’s done, Driedger expects to move the entire operation to the new location.

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