Historic hangar left out of deal, Iveson says

With Westwood and the Blatchford land, the school has a total of 21.5 extra hectares to build on.

A single hectare is roughly the space inside a 400-metre running track. West Edmonton Mall covers 49 hectares.

Mayor Don Iveson said having NAIT border the east, transit-oriented side of Blatchford is going to help generate economic activity and attract other investment to the area.

“This is a huge shot in the arm for the Blatchford development. The proceeds of the sale will help us move forward the development and the cost that we’re undertaking,” he said.

Iveson said deals with builders for the first phase of development are being signed now.

When complete, Blatchford is expected to be home to 30,000 residents.

A small chunk of the original land parcelled for NAIT was trimmed out of the deal for the time being: the fate of Hangar 11, a historic remnant of the site’s aviation past, has yet to be determined, Iveson said. Heritage advocates have lobbied the city to preserve and restore the 1942 structure.

“I think there are still lots of different possibilities for repurposing of that building. We continue to do work around that. Those might include partnership with NAIT, but NAIT is not obliged to partner with us on that,” he said.