Airdrie, Alberta

PREFERRED VENDORS n Shane Communities in partnership with Apex Developments www.midtowninairdrie.com Shane Communities specializes in land acquisition and development. Our first development, Midtown in Airdrie, is well underway! This gorgeous development covers 90 acres in the heart of Airdrie. With stunning community design such as a central pond and a beautiful curving promenade, Midtown’s architecture and features delight the eye. Mid- town has set high expectations for future developments by Shane Communities as its perfect combination of urban living and village charm is appealing to the current home buyer market. n McKee Homes www.mckeehomes.com n Techmation Electric Controls www.techmationelectric.com AIRDRIE, ALBERTA of pools, an indoor track, two indoor fields, two hockey arenas, plus an indoor gymnasium.Airdrie also has a number of soccer fields, baseball dia- monds, and skate parks.And another recreation facility is planned within the next five years. On the infrastructure front,Airdrie gets its water from the City of Calgary and sends the sewage back, so they’re continuously upgrading those lines to accommodate population growth.The two cities have an excellent working relationship and just signed a new 20-year servicing contract.“We’re also investing in service upgrades and the planning work to support the downtown,” says Utz.“We’re always widening roads and increasing our infrastructure. Capital budget investments include a new transit maintenance facility.We have two systems: our internal transit systemmoves people around the community and we also have the Intercity Express (ICE) service that takes employees into Calgary and parts of RockyView and back.One is a local trans- port system, the other a regional. Federal Green Trip funding has helped us continue to expand both those services.” Airdrie City Council just adopted a 10-year eco- nomic strategy framework for the entire city. Rupert says it’s based on three foundation pieces: “The place to be; that we’re right for business; and we’re a connected community.We’ve hosted many provin- cial games and national and international events, but we’re looking at howwe can leverage that through tourism.We also have the Airdrie Pro Rodeo in it’s 50th year this year, and the Airdrie Festival of Lights that runs 30 days through December and is completely volunteer driven.This spring we had our first Children’s Festival. Because of our young pop- ulation,we are seeing more events coming into the community and we’ll be focusing on that. “Our economic strategy is built around place-mak- ing; recognizing the fact that people will choose a place to live and then figure out what they want to do; whether it’s starting a small business or working for someone else.We want to focus on our location next to Calgary,while making sure Airdrie contains that small town feel and entrepreneurial energy that people are looking for.” n Cantest Solutions www.cantest.net