‘Ready to go’: Council approves opening of proposal applications to develop ‘The Yards’

Regina city council has voted to move ahead on "The Yards" area near Dewdney Avenue by accepting proposals for development.

On Wednesday, Regina city council unanimously allowed administration to initiate a competitive procurement process to select a qualified partner, or partners, to develop the former CN railyard site.

“This is a long time coming in terms of utilization and possible development in that area,” Ward 6 Coun. Victoria Flores said. “[Our] community has been waiting for a while.”

The city purchased the land known as ‘The Yards’ in 2012. For years, it has worked towards redeveloping the area, only for it to sit vacant.

Earlier this week, a two-year construction project of Dewdney Avenue was completed and council hopes to keep momentum in the area going.

“It’s extremely exciting,” Mayor Chad Bachynski told reporters following Wednesday’s meeting. “One of my big pushes was as Dewdney was wrapping up its construction, I wanted to see us make sure we were focusing on the next steps.”

As part of the process, administration is to select a developer based on a series of criteria including: project vision, experience, community benefit, Indigenous inclusion, schedule, price and financial return.

“The hope is council has had their feedback and input incorporated into the neighbourhood plan,” city director of land, real estate and economic development, Chad Jedlic, told council. “I recognize [it] was adopted under previous council, but then also in the weighing of the evaluation criteria.”

The city plans to open the request for proposal window in the early New Year and take applications for more than six months before selecting a developer.

Previous applications

Over the past several years, multiple vendors have come forward with their desires to develop The Yards. However, city infrastructure was not sufficient to support development.

Last year, the City of Regina, province of Saskatchewan and federal government teamed together to fund Dewdney Avenue’s revitalization. Each level of government came forward with around $11 million to total $32 million for the project.

With that infrastructure now in place, the city is moving full steam ahead.

“This is the first time we’ve gone through the like an actual RFP process when we’ve had the infrastructure in place to consider proposals publicly,” Mayor Bachynski said.

More recently, a development supported by Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation brought forward submissions to build an Indigenous business hub with a broader plan which included housing.

“This is the official process to put a proposal for development at The Yards,” Bachynski added, saying the First Nation would have to resubmit their proposal.

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The Regina Red Sox of the Western Canadian Baseball League, now owned by Shaun Semple of the Queen City Sports & Entertainment Group, have also indicated their wishes to build a new baseball stadium at the site.

The team first went to city council in 2021 with a concept plan for a 3,500-seat stadium at the site, which the team envisioned the city owning. At the time, the idea was voted down.

“It’s been pretty public there’s an interest to put a ball stadium there, which is great,” Bachynski said. “Knowing we have significant interest from a few players, that’s a good thing. People are excited about what could be in that space.”

In July 2024, city council approved the feasibility study which would search for possible private donors and sponsors for a new tier-one ballpark.

“Are we or are we not going forward with this baseball stadium because it has an impact on The Yards,” Ward 8 Coun. Shanon Zachidniak asked administration Wednesday.

“There was a hold on those lands for a potential sports site that was removed by this council,” city CFO Daren Anderson responded. “There’s no kind of hold where the land has to be used for that purpose. It [also] doesn’t preclude its use.”

• ‘A path forward’: Regina Red Sox-led study recommends building new baseball stadium at The Yards

As part of its funding agreement for the Dewdney Avenue revitalization, the city says there are some stipulations it must follow as outlined by the federal government.

“The installation of a park, planting of a certain number of trees and the availability of land for development of at least 150 residential units,” Jedlic said. “Those are some obligations we have in terms of commitments to other levels of government.”

The plans must also adhere to the official ‘Yards Neighbourhood Plan,’ which was developed in 2020 through extensive consultation with community and stakeholders.

Yet, the city adds anything and everything will be considered.

“We don’t want to presuppose anything on to the marketplace,” Anderson added. “What we’re really looking for here is for our partners in the market to be very creative and to put ideas forward that meet these requirements but also doesn’t tie them down to anything more specific.”

Coming down the track

Still likely a year out from officially selecting a future development, excitement for what is coming down the track is already growing.

“I’ve been for this from the start,” Ward 2 Coun. George Tsiklis said. “The only part I was worried about was I have a lot of new residents in my community [who] may want to chime in on design and so on. They’ve lost that opportunity because we were done as of 2020.”

Councillors say whatever goes to the site needs to be something the community is proud of.

“It is such a great space and there’s so much potential for it,” Flores said. “It’s really great to see projects moving forward. Moving forward with this development and seeing the opening of Dewdney Avenue is really great.”

“How do we measure success?” Tsiklis asked rhetorically. “To me it means people actually go down there and use it, whether they walk there, take transit or drive down there. And we need to be able to handle all of those things.”

While continuing to drive momentum to reach its full potential.

“It’s critical we don’t take our foot off the gas, that we keep leaning into the great momentum,” Bachynski said. “With how amazing Dewdney looks ... we’re ready to go for whatever that development looks like on The Yards.”