Brightenview dumps stalled Dundurn project from website
Despite its chief executive’s insistence that the project remains viable, Brightenview Development International Inc. appears to have scrubbed all references to its proposed — and long-delayed — multimillion-dollar Dundurn mega-mall from its website.
The Saskatoon-based company’s website changed around the time it broke ground on a separate project, a Global Trade Exhibition Centre, at Regina’s Global Transportation Hub (GTH), which it says will attract up to 300 trade-oriented Asian firms.
“It surprises me a little bit, but doesn’t really,” said Rural Municipal of Dundurn Reeve Trevor Reid, whose 2,400 constituents have been waiting for Brightenview to start building the sprawling shopping centre since it was announced in 2012.
Brightenview bought more than 100 acres north of the Town of Dundurn and unveiled plans to build a 6.4 million square foot International Exhibition Centre in late 2012. The project has since experienced numerous delays.
Reid, who was elected to the RM’s top job in late 2015 and previously expressed concerns about delays, said Monday that the sprawling wholesale mall — which Brightenview hoped would attract Asian businesses — is no longer part of the region’s plan.
“If, in fact, Brightenview was to go ahead, great; if not, it’s certainly not something the RM is banking on,” he said, noting that 109 per cent population growth in the region during the last five years. has created other economic opportunities.
In an interview last week, Brightenview CEO Joe Zhou said while the company does not have a firm timeline for the project, it continues to develop infrastructure and address the project’s other “business requirements.”
Reached by email Monday, Zhou said the company is updating its website and removed references to the International Exhibition Centre in preparation for a new project-specific website that is under development.
Reid told The Saskatoon StarPhoenix in August that there had been “no development whatsoever” on the land south of Saskatoon, and confirmed last week that nothing has been done.
He said he had not heard from Zhou in months.
The International Exhibition Centre is not the only Brightenview project to experience significant delays. The company proposed building a $45 million Global Development Centre in Chatham-Kent, Ontario in 2014, but that project is also stalled.
A local politician told The StarPhoenix late last year that the Ontario project was “dead in pretty much everybody’s eyes” after Brightenview’s deadline to buy the property expired and another firm bought some of the land earmarked for the project.
Zhou said last week while its Ontario project was “not the right fit,” Brightenview is committed to building at the GTH. He declined to say how many businesses have agreed to set up shop near Regina, but noted it has received “tremendous interest.”