The city has given Landrex the green light to start some work on its Erin Ridge North Development, even though there is no development agreement yet in place.
Todd Wyman, director of the city’s growth initiative team, said the two sides came to an agreement this week that will allow Landrex to start stripping and grading some areas of St. Albert Trail just north of Coal Mine Road. The supplemental agreement also allows crews to start its deep servicing work, such as utility and trunk mains.
In return, Landrex has posted a $1.2 million letter of credit with the city.
“They’ve got the rest of their permits, so it’s two thumbs up,” said Wyman. “We gave them the authority to go ahead under the terms of the supplemental agreement.”
Landrex CEO Larry Andrews said he was happy the two sides were able to reach an understanding.
“Both the city and us are working together in a positive way,” Andrews said.
City council thought it had reached a final agreement with Landrex on May 28 when a new development agreement was put forward. But before council could vote on it, Landrex asked council for permission to start the stripping and grading, as well as the deep utilities work, before the company had posted all the necessary sureties and offsite levies required.
The company said it needed to get to work on the next four phases of Erin Ridge North — which is expected to include a Costco store — but had to wait for financing to go through before the development agreement could be signed. They anticipated the process of obtaining the necessary $10.6 million in sureties and levies to take as long as a month, which would have put them behind their construction schedule.
Council instead granted city manager Patrick Draper a 30-day window in which he could negotiate a supplementary agreement to accommodate Landrex’s requests.
“There’s a specific work plan they will be able to work on,” Wyman said. “What they needed was a bit of time to work out some of the financial impacts to be able to sign the development agreement because the bylaw says you need to pay before the agreement is signed. They now have some leeway. They can start work.
Wyman said the city is still protected in the event Landrex can’t secure its outstanding financing.
“If, for whatever reason they don’t come up with the rest of the money, work on the site will stop.”
The proposed development agreement is the result of negotiations between the city and Landrex stemming from a lawsuit filed by the development company last year. Landrex claimed the city had collected too much in offsite levies for the first two phases of Erin Ridge North and did not want to pay any levies for phase three. The lawsuit was resolved without any money changing hands.
Now Andrews is only worried about the weather, hoping for sunny skies instead of rain so contractors can get to work.
“If it would stop raining it would help,” Andrews said of meeting the construction schedule. “Both the city and us are working together in a positive way and can’t control the weather.”
