Regina city council voted unanimously to grant Cowessess First Nation the option to purchase city land in north Regina’s Hawkstone neighbourhood.
The 156-acre plot of city-owned land sits east of Pasqua Street and is bordered by Highway 11 to the northeast.
Cowessess First Nation plans to use the land for the commercial development of big box stores as well as small businesses.
“The City of Regina showed their business in reconciliation support today to the Cowessess First Nation,” said Chief Cadmus Delorme. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is a positive nudge forward that Cowessess could potentially be a property manager to small and bigger stores in the north side of Regina.”
Cowessess First Nation asked for an option opinion agreement that will give the nation an 18-month-grace period with a locked-in sale price. The agreement allows Cowessess First Nation to do its due diligence without the risk of having to compete with an outside bidder.
“We’ll do our due diligence and come back and give our proposal to purchase within the 18 months,” said Chief Delorme. “Cowessess is a business-minded nation, and we want to be fair. But being status and being on status land with the Indian Act, it does put us at a disadvantage. So, this option opinion agreement allows us to have a little grace period to not rush some big decisions ahead of us, to be commercial property managers in the city.”
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Chief Delorme said they are already in discussions for anchor tenants but will not share details until deals have been confirmed.
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