NEWS

City of Melfort Recognized for Excellence at Recent SEDA Conference

Saskatoon – The Saskatchewan Economic Development Association (SEDA) was pleased to present the 2010 Economic Development Awards of Excellence on March 3, 2010 at the Delta Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon. The City of Melfort and Community Development Manager Perry Trusty were recognized by over 120 community leaders, government officials and economic development practitioners from across the province in attendance. The Awards Banquet and Presentations provided recognition for the following outstanding contributions to community economic development in Saskatchewan:

OUTSTANDING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE:
Community Development Award
Recipient: City of Melfort Residential Redevelopment Initiative

Initiated in 2007, the redevelopment program was conceived to fulfill the desire of Melfort City Council to effectively utilize vacant residential properties and serviced lots in older subdivisions that were not selling. A multi-faceted tax incentive policy was subsequently developed and implemented based on good zoning principles. This program – which started off as a fairly small initiative with a focused return on investment - subsequently generated several spin off initiatives creating substantial residential growth and new investment to the community.

The program spurred the growth of over 120 new units that were developed during the period of 2007 through 2009 – most of these being single family units and condominiums. This energized housing activity attracted an Ontario based company that builds and operates mobile homes in Ontario and Florida. With assistance of tax incentives, they purchased land from the city and are now selling new mobile units as well as having a supply of mobile units for rent.

The aforementioned residential development also attracted an Alberta investor and his consortium purchased and redeveloped the abandoned Parkland Care Home which was originally built in the early 1950s as a hospital. The building is being developing into a seniors 55+ living center with 24 suites in phase one and 24 more to come in phase 2. With the assistance of 5 year tax incentives, the Parkland redevelopment will turn into a $12 million residential asset when completed.

Overall residential growth during in the 2007 to 2009 period has added incremental tax revenue of over $200,000 per year – compared to the previous record tax growth of $8000 per year. This residential growth helped lead the development of the Stonegate Commercial Centre - a $40 million, 400 job project when fully completed. An integrated and assertive tax and zoning program has been a catalyst for growth in Melfort.

LEADERSHIP AWARD:
Community Economic Developer of the Year
Recipient: Perry Trusty, City of Melfort

This recognition is awarded to an individual who has assumed a leadership role and made significant contributions to a community, region and/or the province as a whole. This year’s recipient made significant strides quickly and effectively in his three year tenure with the City of Melfort. In his first few weeks as Community Development Manager, Perry Trusty undertook an extensive analysis of community infrastructure as well as past and current development opportunities. This revealed that Melfort was being inhibited

by a lack of appropriately zoned and city owned highway commercial land.

Identification of this barrier to development led rapidly to the conception of the Stonegate Commercial Center with Perry providing management from the concept and market research stage through to attracting developers, negotiating and purchasing land and navigating the engineering and regulatory benchmarks that had to be tackled.

This 30 acre development will be the largest single commercial initiative in the history of northeast Saskatchewan with over $1.2 million in property tax revenue and 440 full time equivalent jobs from the 250,000 square feet of building space.

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