It’s a late summer afternoon at Pigeon Lake and the mercury is reaching record highs. The unseasonably warm weather has Albertans scurrying to the lake for one last weekend of waterskiing, windsurfing or just soaking up a few rays. It all brings a smile to the face of Terry Myers, developer of the Village at Pigeon Lake, one of the province’s most unique vacation destinations.
Located on the south end of the lake on Highway 13, just 15 minutes west of the QE2, the Village is the result of Myers’ vision for a self-sufficient lakeside community. It features a hotel, condominiums, a grocery store, restaurants, shops, and many other services including a pharmacy, medical clinic, post office and hair salon.
The Village has come a long way since Myers first purchased the site, at that time nothing more than a field with a few trees, back in 1994. “It was bigger than I was thinking but I fell in love with the property, 140 acres with a creek running through it.” Myers said. “At that time I didn’t know particularly what I was going to do, but I had some ideas.”
His ideas captured the imagination of the community. A long time resident of Pigeon Lake, Myers knew the area was no longer capable of supporting the increasing number of summer visitors or its own rapid population growth. “Surprisingly, we found out there are 4,000 permanent residents here in a ten-mile radius. That’s the size of Wainwright, and we didn’t have any services,” Myers exclaimed. “That’s when we said, ‘Hey, this is going to work, there’s no doubt about it.’ ”
Myers’ vision was to create a rural-themed town square anchored by the area’s only grocery store. “I was expecting a major grocery chain to step up to the plate, but they didn’t,” said Myers. The grocery chains told Myers the area would be better served by a larger convenience store attached to a service station. “I told them ‘I don’t know about you, but my wife does not go to Esso to get groceries!’ ” Myers remembered.
Myers decided to run his own grocery store, the Village Market, and stock it with fresh meat, produce and baked goods. Other businesses and services were leased to local entrepreneurs. “I wanted to have these things because we lived here,” said Myers. “We knew what we wanted and what we needed.”
To get the project off the ground, Myers also needed financial backing. “The door got slammed on us by all the national banks. They didn’t get the concept.”
ATB Financial, however, did get it, and have been partners with Myers since day one. In fact, the very first business to open its doors at the Village at Pigeon Lake was an ATB agency. “There was a little ATB agency in Ma-Me-O which ended up burning down,” said Myers, who proposed a new location for the agency in the Village. “ATB went out on a limb and said yes! So for the first eight or ten months of us operating here, there was this tiny, 532-square-foot building out on the corner with an ATB agency in it, and nothing else. It was pretty crazy.”
Today, the Village is the centerpiece of a bustling lakeside community that won’t stop growing. “When we originally designed the town square and then Village Drive, I can remember saying to myself: ‘Terry, you are out of your mind! There’s no way we’re ever going to need to go that far,’ ” admitted Myers. “And now we could use more commercial space.” Myers has already expanded the grocery store and Village Creek restaurant and is working on building a pedestrian bridge across the creek that runs through the property. It’s all in the name of keeping up to demand. “We still have to earn our customers’ respect and business every day.”
They’ve done a great job so far. From the popular Eco Café, which features dishes using locally-grown ingredients, to the renowned Essentials Spa, the Village at Pigeon Lake has it all covered, catering to visitors and local residents year-round. Extended Alberta summers don’t hurt.
