Commercial Building in East Coulee

It has been a long time in the making but I am now the owner of a commercial building in East Coulee, Alberta.  Geographically speaking, East Coulee is a small town in the badlands of southern Alberta.  Politically speaking it is part of the Town of Drumheller.  This building is rather unique as it is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  It was once occupied by a company that built museum displays, much like Palcoprep, the company that I am involved in.  It ended up in receivership for a while and was eventually sold to a private individual who actually invested a fair bit of time and money upgrading the building.  It has been on the market for quite some time, at an attractive price, but because of it's location and the fact that the Town of Drumheller put serious restrictions on the occupancy, it never sold.  I made an offer on the property back in April, just before I took my trip down to Utah, and it has taken until now to be able to remove all the conditions from that offer and to conclude the purchase.  Mostly this involved obtaining approval from the Town of Drumheller to operate in the building.  It is my intention to lease most of the building to Palcoprep and relocate our operation there from Drumheller proper.  The zoning bylaws allowed discretionary occupancy of the property by an artistic studio.  My business partner Frank may eventually take part ownership of the property.  Over the past couple of months we made our application to the town, based on occupying the property as an artistic company that produces one of a kind displays for museums and similar public facilities.  This application was granted some time ago, but we had to allow a period of time for an appeal process in case there were any local residents opposed to this application.  That appeal period recently expired, with no objections filed, and we are officially allowed to occupy the building.  The real estate transaction has been completed and I took possession of the building on July 4th.

The building was constructed in three phases, the first being an old service station that dates back to the late 1930's.  Later in the 1990's two additions were constructed.  The property consists of 7000 square feet of commercial space on nearly half an acre of land.  There is also some mezzanine space, and two fenced yard areas.  The building is well equipped, with an air compressor, a dust collector, fume extractor, overhead cranes and hoists, and features upgraded mechanical systems, and even air conditioning.  There is a paved RV pad in the yard with full hookups, that will become my private camping spot whenever we visit the area.

Palcoprep does not require all of the space for our day to day operations, so some of the excess space is available for other endeavors.  We are looking to attempt to rent one bay on a short term basis to any artistic project that meets the criteria of our occupancy permit.  I will also be able to utilize the space for personal use, in particular for winter storage of my RV.

I was down in East Coulee last weekend to take possession of the building.  I met a number of the neighbors and had a chance to spend some time and get to know the town.  It is a very unique, laid back place that is home to a number of artists.  I know I am really going to enjoy becoming part of the community, and a part time resident.