After a long wait, Regina’s newest neighbourhood, Coopertown, is set to undergo construction.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday. The neighbourhood is set to welcome 36,000 people over the next 30 years with different types of housing.
“In our first phase, we’re going to have quite a number of townhomes. We’ll have a parcel with townhomes. In our second phase, we’re going to have rental apartments. So there’s going to be a full range of housing types,” said Jason Carlston, vice-president of Dream Development.
The site will feature 8,000 single-family lots and 100 multifamily acres with 6,000 units. Carlston also mentioned the area will have amenities, including shops and retailers, along with the construction of new schools. Coopertown has been in the works for over a decade now, but faced setbacks from infrastructure challenges and sanitary capacity.
The development made progress after city council approved investing $66.8 million in a new Northwest Regional Wastewater Lift Station (NRWLS). Carlston explained it’s typical for municipalities to front-load infrastructure, while developers pay the money back through a levy with interest. Without the city’s backing, Carlston said Dream wouldn’t have proceeded with developing Coopertown.
Demand for housing continues to increase in Regina as the market faces historically low levels for single-family homes for sale.
“We need to get houses built [and] we need houses available so people actually have somewhere to move,” said Mayor Chad Bachynski.
Regina has previously targeted building nearly 57,000 new housing units by 2051 to meet a forecasted population of approximately 370,000 people. Bachynski also said the city will continue looking at ways to invest in infrastructure to ensure housing development proceeds.
“[This will] ensure that we have the capacity of our water, wastewater systems to continue to grow.”
Dream Development is expecting houses to be sold in Coopertown by 2027. Costs for a single-family home will likely be in the $400,000-500,000 range, said Carlston.
Construction for Coopertown will begin on Friday. Meanwhile, Carlston hinted at a new neighbourhood development north of Eastbrook on the Green coming in five years, and land west of Harbour Landing starting to develop in 10 years.
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