The City of Flin Flon and a Calgary-based company have signed an option agreement for building housing at three locations around the community. If it moves forward, the company could build up to four new mixed-use residential apartment blocks in Flin Flon and hundreds of new units.
City councillors approved three option agreements during their Jan. 7 meeting with Clean Communities Corp. (CCC), a Calgary-based clean technologies company. The agreements will allow CCC to do studies, assessments and preliminary work on three areas around Flin Flon - the southern portion of Willowvale Park, a land parcel at Boam Street corresponding with the Foster Park soccer field and a site near Princess Boulevard and Kingsway Boulevard.
The agreements do not mean construction is imminent or that any full deal to sell the land, buy the land or make any other changes will happen. The project will only move ahead if CCC is willing and able to build in the area.
“This company has brought forward a proposal to create some housing, in the form of apartment blocks,” said Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine of the project.
“They’ve looked at three different sites to do it and they’re thinking of using all three sites if it goes ahead.”
According to their website, CCC is an Indigenous-led technology company. The company lists no commercial or residential builds on its website, but lists its CEO as Jody Linklater, the founder and manager of Pewapun Construction, a company that has overseen construction on commercial buildings. The company also has interests in solar energy, water engineering and youth and apprenticeship employment programs.
“With the City of Flin Flon’s support through a motion to grant CCC an option on the identified sites, CCC can now secure funding and dedicate resources to complete the necessary feasibility assessments. The results of these assessments will unlock the potential and guide the project, to ensure that the housing plans align with community priorities and needs,” reads a statement to The Reminder from CCC vice-president of community development Marlene Gogal.
“This initiative goes beyond addressing immediate housing needs. It lays the groundwork for a thriving, prosperous community by delivering affordable and inclusive housing, while creating meaningful opportunities. CCC is honoured to collaborate with the City of Flin Flon.”
Sites
The three sites each have their own agreement, copies of which have been received by The Reminder. Each of the land packages, if the projects are advanced, would see CCC buy the land parcels for just a dollar each, but could potentially add millions in value and potential income from property tax for the City. The packages would see multi-family residential properties be built - all three areas would need to be zoned appropriately for the projects to advance and only the Willowvale site is currently zoned as such.
“Together, these sites provide the potential for four multi-family housing buildings, with up to 90 units each,” reads the statement from Gogal.
For the Willowvale site, listed officially as 320 Green Street, CCC would be buying a parcel of land around 120,000 square feet in size, covering the southern portion of the park currently occupied by the former splash pad, the former Willow Park Curling Club and the current playground. The Joe Brain Petting Zoo, which is located north of the parcel, is not part of the package and will remain open, said councillors and senior City staff.
If approved, CCC’s option agreement says the company could start construction at the site on a 90-120 unit complex as soon as this June. The building, if built, would be worth around $16 million in total, according to the option agreement.
The Boam Street site is tentatively listed to host one block over around 215,000 square feet of land with 90-120 available units, with a projected construction schedule of as early as March 2026 if approved and purchased - CCC projects that site could be the site of a building also worth $16 million if built.
Things change at the Princess Boulevard site, listed in the agreement as the “North Princess Street” site. That project, if approved, would include two smaller blocks totalling 180 units, being built on around 150,000 square feet of land. That site, which CCC projects could see construction as soon as Sept. 2026, would be worth an anticipated $32 million.
Some of the proposed sites are already in use. Foster Park is currently home to a soccer field, while the North Princess Street area is home to a green space with a gravel path connecting it to the City's water treatment facility at Cliff Lake. Fontaine said if CCC chooses any of the three sites, the City will pursue moving amenities instead of shutting them down, offering to move the Foster Park soccer field in case the project goes ahead and so on. Only the infrastructure at Willowvale won’t be moved or rebuilt, with both the former spray pad and curling rink now disused and the playground close to a newer, preexisting playground down the hill at Ecole McIsaac School.
CCC will now look further at the sites and determine if they are feasible to build on.
“All three places they’re looking at as a package, to study the sites and decide whether it’s feasible and whether we can come to an agreement with them to build what could be as many as four different apartment buildings,” said Fontaine.
Needs
Each of the three properties is listed for now only as mixed-use residential. No further specifics about what sort of housing will be included are available as of press time.
While the land at Willowvale Park had been rezoned last year in the hopes of potentially attracting a developer to build seniors’ housing there, there is not yet confirmation of whether CCC would plan to build senior-specific housing at the site. City leadership said more talks, including public consultation, would take place if the builders plan to move ahead with the build and any future land sales.
“If I understand correctly, this isn’t listed as senior housing, but there’s no reason for why some of it would not be senior housing. Our discussions were that this was going to be a mixed facility, so you would have a variety of types of people there, not just one, not just seniors, not just bachelor apartments, but a mixture of different types of people,” said Fontaine.
“A lot of people out here right now are saying, ‘Where are we going to go?’ There aren’t many apartments for them now, but if there’s something like this, if they know there’s a market, I was told they would tailor toward some of that as well. That’s part of what the study is about, as I understand. They have to satisfy our perceived needs with what they’re going to put in there - otherwise, there’s no deal. The best thing we can do is have this out in the public as soon as possible and as clear as possible with everybody having an option to say, ‘This could be good for us’ or ‘This could be very bad’.”
Updates on the project are anticipated to come from the City and from CCC as discussions continue.
