River Street Redevelopment Set To Be Major Economic Announcement

By Robert Thomas

It’s a question that’s been alluded to throughout the past couple of months at Council and that is very soon a major economic project will be announced in Moose Jaw.

The topic came up once again during city manager Jim Puffalt’s farewell speech at Monday evening’s meeting of Moose Jaw City Council.

In his farewell retirement speech Puffalt mentioned there was a new major project to be announced in a very short time.

THE EMPTY SPACE WHERE HISTORIC HOTELS ONCE STOOD ON THE INFAMOUS RIVER STREET IS SET TO BE ANNOUNCED AS A MAJOR REDEVELOPMENT BY THE END OF MAY SOURCES HAVE TOLD MJ INDEPENDENT - MJ INDEPENDENT PHOTO

Despite the secrecy surrounding the project MJ Independent has been told by several reliable sources the announcement will the major redevelopment of the 0 block of River Street West.

The redevelopment will include a hotel and parkade just across 1st Avenue NW fro the Moose Jaw Events Centre plaza area.

At Tuesday’s final media scrum Puffalt was asked by Moose Jaw Today if the project was to announce the building of a major new hotel and development on the 0 block of River Street West.

The outgoing city manager declined to comment on the exact nature of the development other than to say it’s a project he has been working on for five years and that the announcement of the project would be coming by the end of May.

Through confidential sources at City Hall this publication has learnt Administration has been meeting privately with the River Street development group under the auspices of Mayor Clive Tolley’s office discussing the final plans of the proposed hotel project.

Additionally MJ Independent has learnt from a downtown property owner that the proposed hotel is a go with the announcement coming within the next month.

Although the property owner is not involved with the hotel development, he has been told directly by one of the proponents of the project that the hotel is a go and it’s going to be announced very shortly.

As full disclosure the property owner who revealed the details to MJ Independent is a relative of this story’s author and released what they were told directly by a development proponent on condition of anonymity.

“When this is announced it is great news for not just the Downtown but the city as a whole,” the property owner said.

Additional confidential sources connected with engineering and construction have also confirmed The project has been more than bandied about their place of employment but cannot comment on the record as it could impact their employment.

It needs to be noted that Mayor Clive Tolley ran in the by election for the mayor’s chair under a platform that would see the 0 block of River Street West redeveloped.

The block has sat vacant for a number of years after a project to build a major hotel connected to the Moose Jaw Event Centre was abandoned.

The initial project saw the historic hotels on the 0 block of River Street West sold and demolished to make room for the proposed hotel.

A move fought strenuously by an ad hoc historical preservation group.

One of the reasons for the project abandonment was a behind the scenes fight between two groups, which ended up in a bankruptcy trustee fight in Regina’s Court of King’s Bench.

To get around a land ownership problem at the time the City agreed to sell and transfer ownership of a portion of the River Street roadway to allow the hotel to be oriented across the block including over the roadway.

At the time the initial hotel project was cancelled the City attempted to re-purchase the roadway from the former hotel project for the initial purchasing price. The City declined to re-purchase the river street roadway after the former project wanted what is described as a hefty profit for the lands.

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