Heralded as the largest land deal in Moose Jaw’s history, the agreement between the City of Moose Jaw and Carpere Canada has fallen apart.
In a news release issued March 3, city hall explained that Carpere Canada had decided that after “extensive due diligence,” it would not move forward with the agreement or purchase lands in Moose Jaw’s Southeast Industrial Park (SEIP).
Carpere Canada had agreed last July to purchase 312 hectares (780 acres) for $7.8 million; it had already put down a deposit of $780,000. Under the terms of the agreement, the company would also have had the exclusive rights to market the industrial park.
On its website, Carpere said it planned to attract billions of dollars worth of agri-food processing, technology firms, and similar companies, while also constructing a large residential water garden development.
The Moose Jaw Express has reached out to Carpere Canada for comment.
Mayor Fraser Tolmie spoke to the media on March 3 at city hall about the collapse of the Carpere deal.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s collapsed. Right now we’re having conversations with Carpere and deals of this magnitude usually require sometimes extra time,” he said. “We have passed the deadline (of Feb. 28), but I wouldn’t classify it as collapsing because we are having ongoing conversations with them.”
Full payment was supposed to have been at the end of last October, but the company asked for a four-month extension on Oct. 23, 2019. During the 2020 budget deliberations, $10,000 had been set aside for Tolmie and another municipal staffer to travel to China to help market the industrial park.
Carpere has not officially pulled out of the deal since conversations are ongoing, Tolmie reiterated, saying there are usually hurdles with deals such as this. What he wanted residents to know is council has represented its citizens well during the negotiations and has secured other big land deals in the last few years, such as SaskPower, Canadian Tire, TransGas, Holiday Inn, and Imperial Distilleries.
“We have a very good track record and we’ve been very successful … ,” he said.
Tolmie did not think the soft economy or threat from the COVID-19 coronavirus had any effect on the deal falling apart, especially since negotiations began almost a year ago. Instead, he pointed to the expansion of buildings and number of construction permits issued during the last few years as successes, since more than $1 billion has been invested in the community.
City council will give Carpere the opportunity to come back to the table. However, if that doesn’t happen, then the door will be open for other companies to invest in the SEIP, said Tolmie. The whole point of an industrial park is to attract new investments, which is what will happen.
Council found out about Carpere’s decision during the in-camera portion of the Feb. 24 executive committee meeting. Councillors will have the opportunity to discuss the issue in public during the March 9 regular meeting.
The municipality began upgrading parts of the SEIP last year, including the roads and underground infrastructure. Council had used joint provincial/federal funding to make these physical enhancements.
“We had to either use (the money) or lose it and so we used it,” said Tolmie. “That only helps for future negotiations with possibly other businesses that are interested in coming to the City of Moose Jaw.”
SaskPower’s natural gas plant will be the main tenant of the park, with TransGas’ project a secondary tenant. Tolmie thought the presence of these companies made it easier to attract other businesses. City council has made it a mandate to aggressively pursue other companies for the community. This will be done while respecting the conversations with Carpere.
“You want good things to happen in your community. You get excited when good announcements come along and we will be having more announcements for this community in the coming months,” Tolmie added, “which we’re very excited about.”
