Golf course development gets moving

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This article was published 14/11/2019 (2241 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Riverside Lifestyle Estates development at the Wheat City Golf Course is moving forward after a “complex” two and a half years since it was first brought to Brandon City Council.

“The whole process is more complicated than I would have ever guessed, and it’s no fault of anybody or any organization, but we had a lot of hurdles to jump over,” said Rod Lindenberg, project manager at Horizon Builders Ltd.

Horizon Builders first brought the details of the development to Brandon City Council in July 2017. The ambitious plan is to redevelop the land surrounding the city-owned golf course with a hockey arena, two condo buildings and commercial space.

Lindenberg said there are set to be 43 units in the first condo building.

The city sold the Brandon Recreation Centre and a surrounding three-acre parcel to Horizon Builders, in October 2016 at a cost of $860,000. Skyline Developments, a separate development company affiliated with Horizon Builders, owns the clubhouse, Lindenberg said.

“It’s not just any condo. There are lots of good condos around town, but it’s so unique and I can’t stress that enough,” he said. “It’s unique for Brandon and it’s unique for southwestern Manitoba to get … you can’t duplicate this.”

The project is set to roll out in phases, including the condo buildings and redeveloping the city-owned clubhouse.

The Brandon Sun reported in August 2018 the original plan was to start construction in fall 2018, but that was delayed. Lindenberg said work was slowed down by lots of red tape and details to work out, including consulting with Fisheries and Oceans Canada because of the proximity to the Assiniboine River.

City of Brandon traffic and transportation planner Samuel van Huizen said the city is also working to connect the south side of 34th Street to 34th Street North, which involved crossing the CP Rail tracks just south of the golf course. It’s a complicated crossing, which involves utilities and a multi-use pathway, but it is needed for more residential building in the area — including Horizon’s development. When the crossing is built, residents along McDonald Avenue will have more than one way to leave their neighbourhood.

The builders also only recently received title over the land, which allows them to start actually selling units in the building. Lindenberg said at one point the company had 68 per cent of the units spoken for with letters of intent to purchase units, but now the challenge is converting those into purchase agreements.

“People have hung along with us, they’ve stuck with us, which is pretty good, which I think is a testament to just how unique this project is,” he said.

Once 60 per cent of the units are sold, construction on phase one can start. After that, the other pieces of the development, like the clubhouse and commercial space, can get underway.

“It all costs money to start these projects, put it in order, get that first condo building up and started, and then I think we will see very quickly working on the clubhouse and getting the hockey groups back up,” he said.

The plan is to redevelop the curling rinks on the site into a community hockey rink. Lindenberg said he hopes to see hundreds of kids on the ice each week and to turn the area into a hub of activity throughout the year.

The city’s work to build a berm protecting the golf course from flooding is also a big positive, he said, and ensures the course will stay in good shape for golfers during the summer.

“It’s a gem, and that’s our goal — to bring it back and revive it and make it a busy place.”

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_