The work is well underway at Darke Hall as part of the University of Regina’s College Avenue Renewal Project.
The project cleared a major hurdle at Monday’s Regina City Council meeting when council voted in favour of transferring 2.6 acres of land in Wascana Park to the university.
The land just west of Darke Hall is expected to house a proposed headquarters for Conexus Credit Union.
Fraser is the only councillor to vote against the transfer.
“We don’t have any precedent for this type of commercial development. Now, if this goes through, we will,” he said.
The Wascana Centre Authority still needs to propose any kind of development in the park.
The Regina Downtown Business Improvement District (RDBID) also argued against the transfer.
RDBID executive director Judith Veresuk argued that because the downtown office vacancy rate is above 15 per cent, the plan violates the city’s office development policy.
“This office development policy states if the vacancy rate is above… 8 per cent, office development doesn’t happen outside of downtown,” Veresuk said.
The policy defines downtown as between Albert Street and Broad Street, and north of College Avenue up to Fourth Avenue.
“Now that becomes very attractive for existing tenants downtown to relocate outside of downtown and that affects the local shops, the local businesses,” Veresuk argued.
Council members who voted in favour feared deferring a decision or defeating it could halt work on the College Avenue Renewal project.
Conexus Credit Union investigated 17 other sites for a potential headquarters across the province before partnering with the University of Regina.
The 2.6-acre parcel of land is on the south side of College Ave, just outside the downtown boundary.
The U of R will receive help from Conexus on paying for the restoration of the 100-year-old Darke Hall as part of the partnership.
“An atrium is potentially possible, accessibility for Darke Hall is potentially possible. Those are things beyond the financial gift that the university would have to solve unless there was a development on that site,” Conexus Credit Union CEO Eric Dillon said.
No concrete plans for the layout of the proposed 80,000 square foot headquarters have been completed yet.
Known details include about 200 Conexus employees will work there, and approximately 15,000 square feet will be used to establish a “business incubator” for U of R students.
“This is a place they can go. They can get support for business planning, how to put together a marketing plan, how to get investors,” U of R President Vianne Timmons explained.
“This will be a very important contribution to the city.”
At the conclusion of Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Michael Fougere said the city and university need to adapt to the times as a means to help fund ambitious projects.
He added that if the proposed headquarters was located in any other part of the park, the vote may have gone a different way.
“If it was, as I said in my remarks, in the middle of the park, that would be a different story completely. This is about being close to Darke Hall to get that fixed. It’s on the fringe,” Fougere said.
“We do have precedents for other non-core park activities; like the soundstage and like CBC. This, I think is a great addition because what it’s going to do is revitalize and make a very vibrant corridor for the city.”
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