As of July 31, 2007, Balzac is immediately adjacent to Calgary's northern city limits.[3] Balzac is also directly west of theCrossIron Mills shopping mall.
ACanadian Pacific Railway station began operating at Balzac in 1910. It was named byWilliam Cornelius Van Horne, then president of theCanadian Pacific Railway, after one of his favourite authors,Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) a noted French novelist.[4] The post office here was opened on April 1, 1912 under the name "Beddington" and was changed on July 1, 1925. The first warehouse was built in 1916, mostly for coal.[5]Canadian Senator and senate reform advocateBert Brown hails from Balzac.
Although not officially located within Balzac, the hamlet is immediately adjacent to theCrossIron Mills shopping centre, which is the largest single-level mall in Alberta. The business park surrounding the mall, which opened in 2009, saw the addition of a horse-racing track and casino in 2015, and is earmarked for an equestrian college campus and other businesses. The mall and surrounding businesses are officially within theCounty of Rocky View, but the mall and business park is often referred to as being in Balzac because of its proximity to the hamlet.
In early 2009, Wal-mart announced plans to spendCA$115 million ($104.4 US million) to build a 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2) distribution center in the business park east of Balzac. The facility opened in late 2010 and acts as a distribution hub for fresh food in Western Canada.
In late 2017Amazon agreed to locate a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) distribution center. The facility is estimated to create 750 permanent jobs. According to Amazon's director of Canadian operations, Glenn Sommerville the location's proximity of the Calgary International Airport is optimal for faster shipping.[6]
The company Enterra has secured $30M to establish a breeding facility of insects such as thesoldier black fly as a source for high protein animal feed. The facility will employ 30 staff and be operational in 2019.[7]
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