Niverville, Hanover hoping to create Highway 59 business corridor

A rural town and municipality are planning for a possible commercial corridor with the potential to drive business.

Just outside of Highway 59, Niverville watches traffic—and potential customers drive by the booming town.

“Residential’s grown and the businesses have started to take off in response to that,” Niverville Chamber of Commerce President Amanda Wiens said.

Wiens says in the past year, its membership has grown by 30 per cent, saying there seems to be a lot of opportunities for businesses.

A possible land transfer from the RM of Hanover to the town could mean growth over the next few decades.

“People need to know Niverville is here in order to take that turn and come to our community. So that will just give us kind of that greater exposure going right to 59.”

And that partnership could take that one step further.

“Together with Niverville, we are going to be having a corridor along 59 highway,” Hanover Reeve Jim Funk said. “The future for us could be significant.”

That corridor would run for two miles along Highway 59, with costs and revenue split between the town and RM.

The corridor could be as little as five years away, but Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says it could take decades.

It needs a 2,600-acre land annexation proposal to be approved by the province.

“It then becomes contingent on those particular land owners being willing to sell their land to developers,” Dyck said.

The RM and town both say if Highway 59 is twinned in the proposed area, it’ll help drive business.

The province says the highway is under consideration for the design stage to start within the next three years.

No matter what happens with the land—Wiens expects to see Niverville businesses continue to grow.

“I’m excited about the future of Niverville and very excited for our business community. There’s a lot of optimism about what we could look like and how we could serve our community,” she said.