Business View Magazine | July 2019

294 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 suites - that’s apartments and townhouses. And once you’ve got the industry coming, and the jobs, and the housing underway, then we’re seeing the net result, which is the commercial interest. So, we now have major franchises here – including Booster Juice, which opened this spring; a Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen under construction; and a new western Canadian franchise, MR MIKES Steakhouse is under construction and should be open later this year. “Until 2017, Portage la Prairie hadn’t seen development since 2003. Before that, the big change in our situation was a downturn in 1991 when the Canadian air force base closed. And then the Campbell’s Soup plant closed. So, it has taken a bit for the city, particularly, people who’ve lived here there whole life, to grasp what’s happening. Some were skeptical that the interest would cool off, but it hasn’t. As a result of those developments, we now have Overton Environmental Enterprises, owned by Dale Overton, doing a 60-acre organic compost facility to support these industries we have. Most recently, we’ve signed a deal with Carpere. They are Vancouver-based industrial park developers looking to do industrial agri-food development. “When their plan comes to fruition, they’ll have created Portage la Prairie as a center of excellence in agri-food manufacturing. It’s almost like augmenting our economic development team with a motivated agency that has an interest in seeing