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Capital Pointe developers decided Friday to move ahead with building the 27-storey condominium and hotel project at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Albert Street in Regina.
The decision comes after a Saskatchewan Building and Accessibility Standards Appeal Board order gave Westgate Properties three options: start building by April 1, 2019, fix the hole to keep it safe or fill it.
Developers had a deadline of Sept. 30 to tell the city which option they’d like.
“Our client elected to continue to build the project,” Westgate’s lawyer, Neil Abbott, told 980 CJME Saturday afternoon.
“That was (Westgate’s) intention when they first purchased the land and commenced the excavation and that has not changed.”
Abbott said the city received a letter of the decision on Friday.
The appeal board ordered the excavation and shoring work to start Dec. 8. It specified the project must be completed no later than March 30, 2022.
However, developers and officials from the City of Regina will be in court Oct. 23 to determine the next steps.
The city is challenging the appeal board’s order, asking for the hole to be backfilled, while developers want to follow that order and start construction.
“My client is of the view that the appeal is without merit and that the order will survive, and — in any event — I think it’s their desire to proceed with the project,” Abbott said, adding the court hasn’t issued a stay of the order, so it remains in effect.
Abbott noted Westgate never saw filling the crater as a reasonable option.
“Filling the excavation is a step backwards — not only for its project, but, of course, of the development of the site,” he explained.
Capital Pointe was supposed to be completed in 2012. After multiple delays and developers, Fortress Real Developments took over the project in 2014 with excavation beginning in late 2015.
The project’s completion date was eventually moved to 2018. However, as of this fall, it appears no construction has been done to start building it.