It's been a long 4 and a half years, with the same question being asked: When will they start building the New Horizon Mall?

That question was finally answered on June 23rd with the official Ground Breaking Ceremony at the Mall's location on Nose Creek Blvd in Rocky View.

The $200 Million Shopping Centre is the brain child of The Torgan Group and MPI Property Group from Toronto who built a similar establishment, Pacific Mall, in the Greater Toronto Area.

Hundreds of future business owners attended the ceremony which included appearances by Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards, Calgary-Northern Hills MLA Jamie Kleinsteuber and Rocky View County Reeve Greg Boelke.

Richards says that despite the downturn in the economy, it's a perfect time to build a mall like this.

"To bring this in at a time when we need the extra economic activity is a huge, huge win for this area."

County Reeve Greg Boelke echoed that statement saying it's a huge boost for Rocky View.

"This is big, it's a great edition to our already growing East Balzac Commercial Court...we're absolutely thrilled to have them."

Once completed, New Horizon Mall will feature over 500 unique, mulitcultural businesses, a food court and a stage to host various cultural performances.

What sets this shopping centre apart from others in the province is that all of the units are individually purchased and not leased by a single owner.

President of the Torgan Group Eli Swirsky says this approach to business just makes sense.

"When you own your own store, you control your expenses, you control what you do in the space. You're the master of your own fate. In the Far East this is the way they do business. This is the way they'd like to business here but it's not always available to them."

With construction officially underway, all hopes are that things will fall into place in anticipation of the mall opening in November of 2017.