Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
So I spent some time in Brandon on the weekend. It was my first time there since about 2012.
It was interesting to see that, so far as I could tell, there were no new taller (10+ storey) buildings in town. The tallest new building I could spot was the Holiday Inn Express on 18th which clocks in at 6 storeys. There were a few new multi-unit residential buildings in the 2-4 storey range, but nothing taller than that. And certainly no significant new buildings downtown that I could see. There were some nice, modest commercial buildings, mainly offices and the like, but that was about it.
I found it a little curious given Brandon's rapid population growth. I also recall that Brandon saw a lot of construction from about 2000-2010 when the big CanadInns was built and the whole big box shopping district went up. It's still growing, but it does seem as though the pace of construction has tailed off.
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The growth period that you are speaking of was entirely due to Maple Leaf Foods. The plant opened in 1999 and a second shift was added in 2008. Adding what became over 2,000 jobs to the city really transformed things. Given that they have had to recruit from abroad from time to time, the Brandon School Division actually had to start ESL classes. You can read more about the impact here:
http://economicdevelopmentbrandon.co...Leaf_Foods.pdf
Once the additional jobs from the second shift were absorbed, things slowed down a bit. While Brandon is still growing, there really isn't a lot of pressure to build "up". The Holiday Inn Express across from the Keystone Centre is indeed the tallest new building. Unfortunately, some buildings have been lost, particularly in a major downtown fire a couple of years ago. Whenever they get around to replacing the three lane bridge on 18th Street over the CP tracks, the building with the "Home of the Wheat Kings" sign will be the next one demolished.