Mega-mall remains ‘in limbo’
October start in doubt as company doesn’t have the needed permits
The company behind the muchdelayed Dundurn mega-mall is unlikely to meet its latest construction start date estimate, according to the reeve of the rural municipality south of Saskatoon.
“I’m definitely concerned with the delays of the project. The longer the project sits in limbo, the more concerned I become,” said Trevor Reid, who was elected reeve of the RM of Dundurn late last year.
Brightenview Development International Inc. CEO Joe Zhou told an informal meeting of the RM council in March that he hoped the company would begin work on its multimillion-dollar project in October, Reid said. However, the company has not applied for or obtained the necessary development, water and waste water permits from the RM and there has been “no development whatsoever” on the Empty Quarter-section northeast of the Town of Dundurn, he said.
“I fully support the project and would like to see it go ahead, but if it was going to go ahead this October, these permits should have been acquired many months ago.”
Brightenview also needs to subdivide its 132-acre parcel of land northeast of the Town of Dundurn. The company applied to the provincial government to subdivide the land in September 2013, but as of Aug. 24 the property had not been split.
Fred Baran, a 14-year veteran of the RM council, was also at the meeting in March. He said while some local residents think Brightenview’s project is “dead in the water,” others — including himself — believe it’s still viable.
“When (Zhou) tells us things have been delayed, that’s what he tells us: That things have been delayed and that he’s not moving forward right at this time,” Baran said. “But he’s never came right out and said that he’s not going to go ahead with this project.”
Reached by phone, Zhou said the company did not have an update to provide and declined further comment. Lorne Nystrom, a former member of Parliament who handles public relations for the Saskatoon-based company, could not be reached for comment.
Brightenview proposed building a massive “International Exhibition Centre” near the Town of Dundurn in 2012 to serve as a “global commodity trade exhibition and distribution base” for small- and medium-sized Chinese companies.
In March 2013, Zhou told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix that while the project was “a little behind” schedule, work on its first phase would begin later that year and the facility would open in 18 to 24 months.
More than a year later, in August 2014, he said the mega-mall project was “moving along” and construction could begin as early as the spring of 2015. He added that he was “very confident” the project would go forward.
Nystrom told the StarPhoenix in December that behind-the-scenes work was proceeding, but declined to comment on when construction would begin in earnest. He said the company didn’t want to “mislead anybody (with) speculation.”
The Dundurn International Exhibition Centre is not the only project in Brightenview’s portfolio. The company has also explored a similar concept in Ontario and, more recently, signed a deal to buy land at the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) in Regina.
In October 2014, Brightenview proposed building a $45 million “Global Development Centre” on a vacant 33-acre property in Chatham-Kent, a southern Ontario municipality not far from Detroit.
Chatham-Kent council documents show that the company paid $40,000 toward the agreed-upon sale price of $840,000 before requesting a 180-day sale deadline extension to complete the sale.
When the extension expired in October 2015, Brightenview lost its first right of refusal on a potential sale of the property to another party, leading one local politician to describe the deal as “dead on the table.”
Lou Paquette, who has served on the RM council for about six years, also takes a dim view of the project and the likelihood that it will be built anytime soon.
“The seed’s in the ground, but the crop’s not in the bin,” he said.