Carpere Canada Receives Extension On Land Deal

Described as the largest land deal in the history of the City of Moose Jaw it's going to take a few more months to complete the deal.

Carpere Canada was set to purchase 780 acres of the Southeast Industrial Park for $7.8 million by October 30, 2019 but requested and received an extension until February 28, 2020.

Carpere has already paid a ten percent deposit of $780,000 for the land.

At an in-camera special Executive Committee on Wednesday evening the Committee discussed Carpere's request for an extension. In-camera meetings are generally allowed for issues surrounding legal, land and personnel issues.

The extension needs to be approved at this coming Monday's regular meeting of Council.

The Southeast Industrial Park was initially created by annexing land from the RM of Moose Jaw adjacent to the sewage treatment plant.

The initial plan was to have Canadian Protein Innovation (CPI) pea protein plant serve as an anchor tenant for the industrial park.

The deal fell through after numerous extensions and coincidentally one of CPI's directors Michael Schoenert embroiled in bribery and corruption allegations involving his former employer Emsland-Starke after the longest forensic investigation in modern German history.

It needs to be noted Carpere Canada and CPI are separate and NOT affiliated companies.

Additionally SaskPower was set to build a natural gas fired electrical generating plant in the industrial park but the Crown corporation was re-evaluating its plans following a change in federal government regulations making the plant subject to the federal Carbon Tax.