Old mill will keep industrial focus in new use, BMI tells Prince Albert business community

BMI announced their first potential tenant, Plum Gas Solutions, a month ago. That deal is still being finalized, as Plum Gas first needs to determine the number of customers it would have locally and across the north.

“There’s just a bit of buzz about the site, and we’ve had lots of people reaching out around business opportunities, looking for space,” Ricket said.

Their model is not to do ‘mega projects’ but focus instead on one item at a time. So, he warned the audience to have patience, adding that this model has worked in their 10 previous projects.

“It’s kind of a patient and longer-term process, but it’s all about creating resilience so that if one business closes, the whole site doesn’t fall apart,” he said. “We’re in the front end of that process, but we’re excited about it, given the response we’ve had from the community.”

The potential still exists to have the One Sky oriented strand board mill constructed on the site, but that will depend on American tariffs and duties on Canadian lumber. There are other options.

“Maybe it’s modular housing and other things. We see there is a pathway to leverage the forest assets that are in the region, for sure,” Rickett said.

Rickett said BMI Group’s focus is on more than just making money off their business ventures; the first thing they do in any new community is visit its downtown.

Rickett is a Fellow with the Canadian Urban Institute, a national charity that works with communities across Canada on urban issues – everything from urban planning and downtown revitalization to economic development and housing.

Speaking for himself and not BMI, he found a lot of potential in Prince Albert and shared some interesting stats.

“I will say it’s fascinating that you have this amazing asset. Your downtown, just to give you a sense, 9.4 million visits in 2025,” he said.

That was by 700,000 unique visitors with 70 per cent of the traffic during weekdays, mostly in the midday and afternoon.

“You don’t need to attract more people to your downtown; you just have to figure out how to get them to stay longer and spend more money,” Rickett said.

“A lot of this starts with food, you know, keeping people here, you’re downtown for work or school, you stay for lunch, you might stay after work with your co-workers as an example.”

More after-work activities are also needed, and the best way to get them is to have more living spaces downtown, he said.

He admits, challenges exist with buildings that have not been maintained, high vacancy rates, and safety concerns. However, many downtown revitalization plans start with almost no traffic, so Prince Albert’s core already has a leg up.

“You’ve got a beautiful downtown. You’ve got great urban form. You just need to build upon it,” he said.

Another thing he believes needs to change is the flow of traffic on Central Avenue. He said it should not be one way because it reduces the amount of time people spend in the core. Mayor Bill Powalinsky noted Rickett’s observation, saying it echoed a recent presentation to city council that suggested Central Avenue should have two-way traffic as part of a planned rehabilitation.

“I’m going to say it’s a coincidence and great minds think alike, and it certainly is so nice to have the unanticipated support because to me, a two-way street does make sense,” he said.

City representatives had already heard the BMI presentation, but Powalinksy said it was good to hear it again.

“We’ve had previous meetings with BMI and what it is. It’s more information on what their business approach is, their strategy. So it’s fleshed out and it’s still as exciting as it was the first time that we met them. A brilliant business model,” he said.

Patty Hughes, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce said it was important for the new business to meet the existing business community.

“I think it’s really important that they’re a new community partner in our business community and there was a lot of questions about them,” she said. “I wanted them to meet the business community and that was really critically important to rolling out the red carpet.”

Hughes added the information Rickett provided about people accessing the downtown is something that has been missing.

“This is the type of information that they’re able to get and gather. It’s not cheap to do it, so you understand they do not make business decisions lightly; they make sure they have good data like that.”

The information was gathered by buying bulk cell phone data targeted to the downtown.

Some of the information showed that the median age of people in the downtown is 33.5 and 50 per cent of visitors are local.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social

by Susan McNeil

Old mill will keep industrial focus in new use, BMI tells Prince Albert business community

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