Developer vows to keep pushing city yards plan
A Vancouver-based developer who wants to transform Saskatoon says he is disappointed in a city hall report that throws cold water on his plan to redevelop the city yards.
Jeff Drexel, president of Arbutus Properties, said in an interview Thursday he will continue to push his vision, despite a report that says there are “no immediate plans” to relocate city operations.
Arbutus pitched the idea this spring at city hall to redevelop the city yards, which are located north of downtown in a narrow triangle bordered by the Canadian Pacific train tracks and First Avenue.
“(Arbutus is) a little frustrated, but there’s a process in place for a reason,” Drexel said. “But we will continue down the path and challenge administration on its approach.” The company’s plan included a full-sized downtown grocery store to be located along 25th Street and feature retail, office and residential. The plan seems to meet several of the stated goals of Saskatoon city council, including infill development and a revitalized downtown, Drexel said.
The City of Saskatoon report, which will be considered by city council’s finance committee on Tuesday, says 650 permanent employees and another 100 seasonal staff work out of buildings on the 31.82 acres that make up the city yards.
Five city hall divisions operate out of the yards, which host 16 permanent buildings, eight coverall structures and five trailers, the report says. There are also 420 civic vehicles and pieces of equipment that operate out of the yards.
The report, written by Keith Pfeil, manager of real estate services, estimates it could take 25 to 30 years to redevelop the yards. Pfeil cites a number of factors, such as potential contamination of the land, that make it difficult to estimate the value of the city yards.
“That’s a big disappointment,” Drexel said. “We don’t see why it couldn’t be facilitated faster.”
Drexel said Arbutus will wait to see how city council reacts to the administration’s report.
The city is coming up with a plan to “methodically transition” the yards out of their current site, the report says. There are five parcels of city-owned land south of 25th Street that will be offered for sale in the next three years, the report reveals. “We feel we have a fairly strong reputation for delivering projects and we’d like to do it again with the yards,” Drexel said.
A 2014 report outlined a grand vision for the development of the city yards that would have included a “park bridge” over the train tracks to connect the two quadrants of the Central Industrial area.
The city is pursuing federal funding for a $200-million plan to relocate the city yards throughout the city after shelving a $92-million strategy to move the yards to the civic operations centre.
Arbutus, which is developing the Meadows community in the Rosewood neighbourhood and the commercial area that includes the new Costco, also wants to develop a community called Solair on the city’s southeast edge. Solair would be completely powered and heated by rooftop solar panels and feature self-contained rain gardens instead of storm sewers.
Arbutus has been warned that since the parcel of land it is targeting is located in the Rural Municipality of Corman Park, annexing the land into the city could be a long and complex process.