No Timmies as coffee shop icon says they've waited too long for land deal

The developer who spent three years trying to bring the Tim Horton’ s to Lac La Biche says the iconic coffee franchise is no longer interested in the project. And Les Mabott, an Edmonton-based property developer says the reason his project failed is due to the three-year timespan it took the local government to finalize the location of the store.
Mabott says he had a letter of intent from the Tim Horton’ s group since 2013 saying that once his building was approved on a site owned by Lac La Biche land developer Albert Stratichuk near the new Ramada hotel, the popular coffee and snack business was ready to open. When the property officially received municipal titles this past January after years of negotiations, the Tim Hortons group was no longer interested.
“You can’ t keep these people on the hook for two or three years. The project is off the table,” Mabott told the POST last Friday.
The reasons, he says, are not just from the delays over the years he has been working on the deal, but also what he calls an anti-business atmosphere from municipal administrators he had dealings with.
He first met with Lac La Biche County planning officials two years ago.
“I wanted to see how thing were going,” said Mabott, who fronts a corporation that has created corporate buildings in Edmonton, Calgary, California and the Bahamas.

During the meeting with two leaders of the local planning department, Mabott told the POST they told him he should move his project to the Bold Center. The two officials, who have both since left the community, presented a definite anti-business atmosphere, said Mabott.
One of them - the same one who was trying to get Mabott to move stakes and build near the Bold Center - was particularly troubling.
“This guy was absolutely determined to kill any deal that came from the private sector,” Mabott said. “He asked me why I wanted to build in that location, at the Stratichuk site by the highway, and said he had a few better sites over by the Bold Center.”
The experienced developer says he and Tim Hortons officials selected the Stratichuk subdivision because of its location near a busy highway intersection. That kind of exposure is not available near the Bold Center.
“The Bold Center is a wonderful project, but ... Tim Hortons had already looked at the Bold Center area and said they were not interested. People like that know a community inside and out ... they drive every street in the town, they get official traffic counts ... They know where they want to be and where they don’ t want to be,” said Mabott.
When he told the municipal planners he wasn’ t interested in abandoning the site, Mabott says he was talked down to and made to feel he was making a mistake.

Mabott’ s experience with the Lac La Biche County planners is something he has never encountered before.
“You don’ t see that kind of push-back anywhere,” he said, listing a career in the industry spanning back to when he was a deputy minister and senior negotiator on government agreements between Alberta and Ottawa under former premiers Peter Lougheed and Don Getty. “I haven’ t had that kind of experience before ... you look at it and you shake your head.”
His experience with the municipal planning department is something the municipality’ s current CAO was not aware of, she says, until contacted by the POST.
“The current administration is not aware of the details discussed between the former administration and the developer, and as such a formal review has not been conducted,” said CAO Shadia Amblie last Friday, adding however, that she will be following up on the issue. “We will be reaching out to the developer to discuss his concerns.”
The delays and difficulties are nothing new to the parcel of land the Tim Hortons was supposed to occupy. Land owner Albert Stratichuk says he has been fighting an uphill battle since 2007 to fully plan and develop the 54-acre parcel alongside Highway 36 and the ring-road south of Lac La Biche.
Over the last five years - time spent trying to finalize five lots on the eastern-most portion of the property, including the Tim Horton’ s site - Stratichuk has been forced to take Lac La Biche County planners to the Municipal Government Board to appeal decisions imposed by county officials against the land. In 2014, he won a legal battle relating to road-width restrictions that municipal officials imposed. Since then, he has created a gravel road that will connect the eastern part of the subdivision to the Lac La Biche road network, and allow for future water and sewer utilities to reach the new parcels of land.
“It’ s all there, it’ s all in place,” Stratichuk told the POST a few weeks after learning the Tim Horton’ s deal was off the table. “They couldn’ t wait that long. We’ ve asked them to extend their agreement seven times while we wait for the county to give us approvals. Now it’ s too late.”

Stratichuk hopes municipal officials will now see the need to create water and sewer connections into the eastern portion of his subdivision, allowing more potential developers in that area to tie into utilities and create more development.
“It’ s not all about the Bold Center. This is a busy, high-traffic area,” he said, adding that one land owner adjacent to his property is considering a road-side strip mall.
In the Lac La Biche County administration offices, Amblie says any plans to put water and sewer utilities along the new road to the Stratichuk subdivision are not on the immediate horizon.
“Water and sewer services would need to be installed prior to paving the street. The project is listed in our capital plan for future consideration,” she said, adding that water and sewer utilities have been installed alongside the gravel road portion of 94 Avenue near the Bold Center. “There are water main hydrants along the street and a gravity sewer line is in place; however, a lift station would be required in the future if the gravity line is to be used. The water main is currently shut off past the Bold Center.”
There was no cost given for the water lines.

Whether or not any new development will tie into the new water line was not specified, but Amblie did say there is some activity happening near the Bold Center facility.
“There is currently a project that has been initiated near the Bold Center, and we expect more activity in the vicinity this summer.”
Amblie says the current administration is committed to creating an environment for growth.
“The primary objective is to work with developers to help facilitate their project,” she said.

Mabott said he would recommend the former Tim Horton’ s site to any potential investors, but would not be willing to go through the challenges he faced with the past planning department.
Stratichuk said he continues to search for other ‘brand name’ businesses to set up shop in his new subdivision, but admits the economic climate has changed significantly since he first planned to develop the area.
“The window to do that was there three years ago. All of the brands were chomping at the bit to get going, and that’ s really not happening now,” he said.

An attempt was made to contact Gordon Frank, a former planning official with Lac La Biche County, for comment on the issue. Frank is now the director of planning and community services in Woodlands County near Whitecourt. Staff in that office said Frank is currently on an extended vacation and is not expected to return until April.
Stratichuk tells the POST that he’ s not interested in giving anyone a ‘black eye’ over what he feels has been some very frustrating attempts to promote business in his hometown. Among other things, he wants people to know the reason why there’ s no Tim Hortons in the community yet.
“All I’ m doing is telling my story,” he said.