Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1105495
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Trunk Hwy 6 North (204) 768-9753 MELITA 624 Government Rd. (204) 522-8166 SOURIS 5-1st Avenue (204) 483-2953 SWAN RIVER 1437 Main Street (204) 734-3352 Visit our website at: www.portagemutual.com We'll be there when you need us most. For top-notch home and personal property coverage, backed by top-notch claims service, get the Residential Pro package from Portage Mutual Insurance. MINNEDOSA CREDIT UNION'S MORTGAGE PLUS+ PROGRAM MCU believes that we are the best alternative for YOUR Mortgage! Competitive interest rates that will not be undersold! Minnedosa is on a roll, with new businesses and attractions sprouting up downtown, but oldies are where it's at during classic rock festival Rockin' the Fields of Minnedosa. The 16th instalment of the volunteer-run festival is set for Aug. 2-4, with a handful of youthful acts and some truly golden oldies — April Wine is celebrating its 50th year with a greatest- hits set, and the band is joined by Lee Aaron, Harlequin, Platinum Blonde, Streetheart, Sass Jordan, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, 54-40, Collective Soul and Sam Roberts Band. Find a complete list of performers, and score your tickets, at www.rockinthefields.ca. Lee Aaron (left), Harlequin and Streetheart are among this year's crop of classic rockers. The two combined for about $860 million of the total investment and will add about 300 full-time jobs by the time Roquette is fully operational in the second half of 2020. Farmers will also benefit as, for exam- ple, it's expected that the bigger Simplot plant will result in demand for another 17,000 acres of potatoes annually. "We've had two good years and ev- erybody is waiting for that momentum to slow down, but it hasn't. The pace of investment enquiry continues to be active," says Vern May, executive direc- tor of Portage Regional Economic De- velopment. While some communities measure success based on the number of new storefronts that open up during a given period, May takes a different tack. "That's not the role of economic de- velopment agencies. New commercial starts are the result of doing everything else right. We've attracted the industry, which is creating the jobs, which has stimulated housing starts," he says. Indeed, more than 400 new suites are currently under construction or will be shortly, most of which are be- ing built by Jacobson & Greiner Group and Seymour Pacific Developments. The two construction companies have been very active in hiring tradespeople to build the two buildings. It's all combining to create the right conditions for a number of new retail- ers to hang up their shingles. A new Booster Juice franchise recently started serving its first smoothies while Pop- eyes Louisiana Kitchen is under con- struction and Mr. Mikes Steakhouse isn't far behind. Other businesses, such as agricul- tural, automotive and industrial com- pany Western Bearing and Acklands- Grainger, a manufacturer of safety and fastener products, are making major reinvestments in their current facilities. Success is breeding success and May says the hive of activity has caused a lot of international investors who previously wouldn't have known their Portage la Prairie from a Flin Flon to suddenly become "very curious" about following in Roquette's footsteps. "They're saying, 'If those competi- tors are investing there, we should find out what this is all about.' We have delegations in our offices weekly from Africa, India, Pakistan, China and Eu- rope." The African investors are in the final stages of proposing a new commercial enterprise for the three-acre site they purchased downtown — a vacant lot where the Portage Hotel stood for more than a century until it burned down 13 years ago. "It has sat like an empty scar on downtown since then," May says. But it's not just the people living in the city that are stirring up the nation- al and international interest — it's the 50,000 consumers in the trading area. May notes that the buzz from all of the investment activity and additional visibility has put some serious air in the sails of Portage la Prairie's tourism pro- gram and marketing. "Three years ago, we probably wouldn't have got the same support to invest as heavily in marketing and branding as we are now." P ortage la Prairie has got "mo." The city of 13,300 less than an hour west of Win- nipeg continues to ride the momentum — a.k.a. "mo" — of $1.2 billion in new investment since 2017, highlighted by the current construction of a pea protein production plant for France-based Roquette and the ex- pansion of Simplot's existing potato processing facility. BUILDING ON SUCCESS Major investments stimulate more growth in Portage BY GEOFF KIRBYSON A flurry of investment activity has had spinoff benefits, including allowing for a greater focus on tourism marketing of attractions, which include Stride Place and Splash Island. Photos by Darcy Finley