Late offer of $2.8 million made on Regina’s Capital Pointe lot

A Regina developer has made a late offer of $2.8 million on the Capital Pointe lot in Regina’s downtown.

Smith Street Lands formulated their offer over the weekend, which would pay the taxes owed to the city of Regina and pay the cost of filling the hole.

In an affidavit, Smith Street Lands president Robert Goldman said the company was interested in the land for some time, but not at the initial listing price of $8.5 million.

It wasn’t until Dec. 5, when they learned through media reports that the listing price had dropped and an offer was tentatively accepted, that they became interested.

The price of the lot was lowered to $2 million in August, which triggered an offer from Royalty Development.

In November, the seller accepted Royalty Development’s $2.2 million offer with the assumption of certain property taxes.

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Plantiff Graham Richards, who filed an application with the Court of Queen’s Bench to accept the $2.2 million offer, said both offers are “really close.”

The tax payment requirements are represented differently on both offers. As a result, the net difference between Royalty Development’s offer and Smith Streets Lands offer is around $100,000, with more being offered by the latter.

“Their offer isn’t actually $500,000 more when you actually analyze the numbers,” Richards said.

On Tuesday, the Court of Queen’s Bench will either accept or reject the approved $2.2 million offer.

The Merchant Law Group, who filed the late offer on behalf of Smith Street Lands, said it hopes the court will reject it.

“Our expectation is that the court will consider the much-better-offer, and either approve that much-better-offer or say we’ll consider that much-better-offer at a better time, and not approve the lesser and inadequate offer,” Tony Merchant said.

Regardless of which offer is accepted, the sale remains conditional on the City of Regina approving the land to be zoned for a parking lot.

“For the short term, we would use the lands as a parking lot, and we would require approvals and zoning compliance,” Goldman said in court documents. “However, we would work to try to develop the land into some functioning land use.”

Smith Street Lands is comprised of shareholders including Bison Properties Ltd., Victoria Acres Development Corporation and a numbered company, which is owned by Evatt Merchant and Pana Merchant.

Smith Street has developed property in Regina for over 50 years. They developed 2001 Cornwall St. with 106 suites, and commercial development on the main level of Centre Pointe Plaza.

Royalty Developments is a western-based real estate developer owned by the Marquart family. Anthony Marquart, who is part-owner of the Regina Pats, serves as the president. Royalty Developments currently owns approximately 250,000 square feet of undeveloped land in downtown Regina.