Lethbridge market booming as investment gains pace

Strong job growth, new construction bearing fruit

The largest capital investment in the history of McCain Foods Ltd. is attracting new businesses and residents to Lethbridge, but the city’s industrial and office markets continue to chart their own course as conditions normalize following the upheavals of the past four years.

“Lethbridge sits at the heart of what we call Canada’s premier food corridor,” said Trevor Lewington, CEO with Economic Development Lethbridge. "Recent investments in the region like the $600 million expansion by McCain as well as the $220 million investment by NewCold underscore the importance of agrifood to our city as well as the bright prospects driving growth for the future.”

NewCold, a company from Europe that specializes in frozen storage and logistics, represents international diversification in a region whose manufacturing base also includes a Pratt & Whitney jet engine plant and Kawneer Co. Canada Ltd. aluminum plant among other ventures.

The breadth of activity has helped push unemployment down to five per cent even as the workforce has expanded by 15,000 people over the past two years.

“We’ve seen both the participation rate increase and total employment increase,” he said. “We’ve been able to absorb those 15,000 workers into the economy.”

There remain about 4,000 job vacancies in the region, primarily in the skilled trades.

While the 14,000 students at the University of Lethbridge and Fairview College fill most of the service-sector jobs, many leave on graduation as entry-level roles for graduates are rare.

Yet skilled workers are most in demand to keep the economy humming – instrumentation trades, electricians and heavy equipment operators.

They’ll be even more in need as industrial development ramps up after a lull following the sharp rise in construction and financing costs in 2021-22.

An owner-user has purchased two of the three lots available at Northpointe, a venture of Lethbridge-based Sumus Property Group within the 350-acre Sherring Business and Industrial Park, and will soon commence a 250,000-square-foot development.

Yet high servicing costs within the city have focused Sumus itself on 63 acres it acquired earlier this year in Frontier Business Park, a few minutes away in Lethbridge County.

Most of the space will likely be built to order for tenants with lower site servicing requirements attracted by the tax incentives in the county.