As anticipated, the Town of Slave Lake has awarded the contract to the low bidder on the (roughly) $29 million government centre.
According to the terms, Chandos Construction, an Edmonton firm, has 77 weeks to complete the project, which includes provincial and municipal offices as well as a new library.
The location is the north end of what is now the Sawridge Plaza Mall, with the town and library portion extending into the north end of the parking lot. The project includes expanded parking on the west side of the mall, to accommodate the provincial offices.
Chandos was the lowest of two bidders on the project, coming in at $28.9 million. Approximately 70 per cent of that figure will be covered by the province through a lease agreement with the town, which will own the building.
Most provincial government offices in Slave Lake will move into the new building. Excluded are the forest protection operations of the local Sustainable Resource Development office.
Otherwise, the ‘Forestry’ offices will be located downtown, along with Fish & Wildlife, Parks and all the provincial services that are currently across Main St. at the Lakeland Centre.
In an earlier news release, Mayor Karina Pillay-Kinnee stressed the significance of the project to the community, saying, “This building will revitalize Main Street, offer a one-stop, central access for residents and solidify our place as a regional centre for provincial government services. In Alberta’s current economic environment,” the mayor added, “many projects are not proceeding because the costs are coming in substantially over budget. Considerable effort was expended to limit and project accurate costs for this project.”
Pillay-Kinnee and town manager Betty Osmond met with the Chandos team in Edmonton last week. The mayor says they are ready to jump into the project, and expects work to have already begun – at least work on the planning side. Action on the site, she predicts, should be evident within a month or so.
The project will displace two businesses located in the north end of the mall. The landlord hopes to relocate both Maga’s clothing store and the Shopper’s Drug Mart, although there are indications the drug store plans to move across the highway into the Cornerstone Centre.
“There’s sufficient space,” for both tenants in the southern portion, McNutt says.
Maga’s owner Andy Assaf tells The Leader he doesn’t know when it’s going to happen, but he expects to move to another spot in the mall.
The transition is a bit complicated for the two tenants, McNutt says, because renovations on the south end of the mall can’t commence until a wall is erected dividing the two properties. Building that wall is the first order of business, and it will effectively separate the two stores from the rest of the mall.
McNutt says the plan is to make it as painless as possible by maintaining “undisturbed access and signage” for Shoppers and Magas for as long as they remain. He says he hopes “by late spring” to have them relocated, but isn’t sure how workable that is.
McNutt calls the government centre project “a really strong move by the town. We’re really delighted.”
Efforts to contact Shoppers Drug Mart officials last week were unsuccessful. However, the town’s planning and development department confirmed that it has issued a permit for the development of a lot in the Cornerstone for a Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as a Staples store.

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