In a town hall meeting open to the public, the Government of Saskatchewan announced its plans to open a public, competitive request for proposals period regarding the now-empty Valley View Centre and land surrounding it.
The property, currently owned by the Ministry of Central Services, occupies about 200 acres on the south end of Moose Jaw, within city limits, and houses 23 buildings. The Ministry has divided the land into four parcels, available for tenders during the upcoming RFP process.Following the standard process of evaluating a surplus property that is no longer required for programming, the land was appraised and municipal authorities were contacted about their potential interest.
RFPs will be accepted from developers beginning Nov. 13 until Dec. 11 of this year, after which the evaluation process of submitted bids will begin. In the case of no submitted RFPs, the Ministry will then consider other options — selling the buildings individually, or beginning an RFP process for contractors to demolish the buildings and sell the remaining land.
Only RFPs that meet or exceed the appraised market value of the land will be considered. The fair market value, as determined by the Government of Saskatchewan’s appraisal, can not be released at this time. The highest bid from this process will be awarded the land purchase.
Tenders can be submitted online through sasktenders.ca, when applications open in November.
Since the announcement of the Centre’s closure in 2012, 153 residents have been relocated to community-based homes across the province. The last Valley View resident was relocated as of September 2019, marking the end of institutionalized-style living for adults with intellectual disabilities.
