A governing Metis organization is poised to become a substantial landowner in the downtown core by buying the former Terrace Co-op lands along Greig Ave. from the City of Terrace.
At approximately 4.2 acres the deal with the Metis Nation B.C. to buy the lands, once the site of a thriving shopping complex since demolished, is anticipated to close at the end of June next year at a price of $1.95 million. That’s significantly less than the asking price of $2.659 million.
Should the sale go through, it will mark an end to the controversial purchase by the city of the property in 2005 for $1 million.
The city council of the day had hoped it could promote the property as a centrepiece location for commercial and other outlets contributing to the revitalization of the downtown core.
But the purchase also removed the land from the city’s tax rolls. And it became a focal point for the 2008 municipal election campaign in which city councillor Dave Pernarowski defeated long-time mayor Jack Talstra.
For decades, the location housed an extensive Terrace Co-op complex consisting of a hardware store, a food store, a cafeteria, an insurance outlet, a gas bar and other services.
Economic conditions and changing consumer habits forced the closure of the complex in 1997 after which it was purchased by local private interests and then re-sold to the city. The Terrace Co-op became defunct and was rolled into the Four Rivers Co-op.
The city had the structure demolished in 2011 after the site began to gradually deteriorate in the expectation a cleared site would spur sale interest.
But it then faced having to remediate the property, now considered a “brownfield” site because of hydro-carbon deposits mainly due to the gas bar which was located on the corner of Greig and Kalum, across the street from the Best Western Terrace Inn.
That resulted in years of remediation subsidized with the help of grants from the provincial government.
The land was also divided into three lots, with the largest taking on a Greig Ave. address as it fronted Greig and the two others taking on Kalum St. addresses as they faced that street.
There was renewed optimism the city’s long-term vision for the property would be realized when it reached a conditional sales agreement with a Calgary hotel developer in 2013 for the Greig Ave. lot provided an clean bill of environmental health was first obtained.
That deal, however, was never finalized.
The city further offered up one of the two smaller lots, now labelled 3115 Kalum St. to the Heritage Park Museum for an eventual building of its own. That location, the site of the old gas bar, required extensive remediation.
Earlier this year the museum formally told the city it was no longer interested in the location.
Through the years the city did make efforts to sell the properties and just this year renewed the attempt, placing all three properties on the market as individual listings but with the hope they could be sold as a package.
“The reason for separate deals for each of the three parcels is due to clauses related to the environmental status of the lands,” said city communications official Kate Lautens.
“All of the lands were cleaned to government requirements, but two of the properties have limitations as to what could be built on them.”
The Metis Nation B.C. describes itself as the representative of Metis people under Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution which sets out the Metis as being one of three recognized Indigenous groups, the two others being Indian and Inuit. As such it has a governing structure including providing for education and social services.
The Metis Nation B.C. has not responded so far to emails inquiring about its plans for the three properties but the purchase intent would seem to mark a change in what it wishes to do in Terrace.
In early 2022, it purchased half an acre of land right beside the Joe’s Place permanent homeless shelter on Tetrault and right across the street from the Mills Memorial Hospital property.
In information released at the time, Metis Nation B.C. said it had plans there for a combined residential, daycare and office structure.
The $850,000 purchase price came from a federal program providing $500 million over 10 years for Metis developments.
Based on real estate listings, the Tetrault property is now back on the market at a price of $849,000.
Zoning applicable to the former Terrace Co-op lands provides for housing on the upper levels of buildings as tall as six storeys with a broad mixture of commercial and cultural outlets on the street level.