MOOSOMIN — It was a record-breaking year for construction in Moosomin, with construction in the town and the RM of Moosomin in 2024 totalling $24,086,781.
That total is about four times the $6,193,713 in building permits in 2023 and nine times higher than the $2,638,300 in 2022.
Of the $24 million in construction, $16,786,781 was within the town of Moosomin itself, and the remainder is commercial construction on the edge of Moosomin, including the new IJACK building, the new Johnston’s Grain building, the new Mantle building and the new Sunny Transport building, which are in the RM but immediately adjacent to the town.
Within the town of Moosomin, residential building permits totalled $5,776,781 through 14 permits while five commercial projects accounted for $11,010,000. Borderland Co-op’s new 30,000-square-foot food store in Moosomin contributed $10,0000 to that total.
“A lot of that would be the new grocery store because that one is $10 million,” explained Economic Development Officer, Casey McCormac.
“Most of those from 2024, quite a few of them, will be finished up here in the beginning of 2025. The grocery store was our most expensive one, and then the next one would be the two 12-unit apartment buildings that Keller Developments is doing. After that, there’s quite a few new homes, and I think a lot of that has to do with our residential incentive.”
Borderland Co-op CEO Jason Schenn says building a new food store in Moosomin made sense.
“We’ve been a part of the fabric of our communities for a long, long time,” said Schenn. “We do everything we do with the intent of looking generationally, not just quarterly or for the next two or three years. We look at communities, their potential, and we try to help them survive and thrive wherever we can.”
Schenn is anticipating the new store will open sometime in March. “That’s always a moving target,” he said. “We’ve had a couple meetings this week where we’ve been trying to lock that down to a specific date, and we’re not quite there yet. I’m very much hopeful at this point that we’re going to be in operation in March.”
According to Evan Keller, Owner of Keller Developments, the experience with the town has been positive.
“The town has been amazing to work with, along with Kevin from the Chamber and all the local trades we were able to use,” he said. “We are targeting occupancy for Feb. 1 in the first building, and hope to fill them quickly!”
McCormac says the town is getting close to reaching its goal under its incentive program.
“We have the 24 units from Keller Developments. We have the six-plex that’s on the corner by the grocery store, two new houses, and a basement suite. That puts us at 33 units, and we need to hit 43, so we have 10 left.”
The incentive program offers $30,000 to anyone interested in a new build, plus $8,000 for each extra door in multi-unit housing. With only 10 spaces left and two years to accomplish the feat, McCormac is confident the town can fulfil its commitment. What comes after the current incentive plan wraps to maintain that positive momentum remains to be seen, but McCormac said conversations are happening around continued incentive plans.
“I don’t think we’ll be getting any more accelerator funding from the federal government, but Council has talked about potentially putting in some sort of residential incentive after that,” she explained when asked about what happens once the last 10 units have been claimed.
