Mayor wants city to buy MacEwan’s west Edmonton campus

By Aaron Taylor and Erin Cripps-Woods

EDMONTON — Mayor Stephen Mandel wants the City of Edmonton to buy Grant MacEwan University’s arts campus as its contribution to the institution’s move downtown.

At a reception on Nov. 1, MacEwan president David Atkinson announced the university’s $90-million project to expand its downtown campus and sell the west-end and south-side campuses.

“One of MacEwan’s greatest strategic advantages is location,” Atkinson said to an audience of faculty, city staff and politicians. “We know we have a role in downtown, we are committed to that, and we want to contribute more.”

After the announcement, Mandel said the city would not fund MacEwan’s downtown expansion, but he hoped the city would buy the Centre for the Arts and Communications, the big orange building at 156 Street and Stony Plain Road, which is valued at $37 million.

“Our donation to the new campus will be to buy the west-end building,” Mandel said.

MacEwan’s board of governors authorized the development of a detailed plan to relocate the programs delivered at the Centre for the Arts to the downtown location by September 2015. But a buyer has to be found first.

“We are now into negotiations, so I have to be circumspect about what I say,” Atkinson said. “But what I am prepared to say is that we are getting pretty close. The board would not have made this commitment if they didn’t know that there was money coming in the front door.”

Mandel has but one vote on city council, but at least two councillors share his interest in purchasing the campus.

The city would be “crazy to pass up that opportunity,” said Ward 8 Coun. Ben Henderson.

“It’s still formative, but there is a group that thinks that it would be a very good opportunity to create an art centre that could be used by people across the city,”  he said.

Ward 11 Coun. Kerry Diotte also expressed interest in the acquisition, saying that the city “wants to make sure there is a quality presence in the community, whether it’s a college or not.”

Diotte added that he thought the building was a quality structure, and joked that the orange building “could be painted blue, so you could have Oiler colours.”

The Stony Plain Road and Area Business Association already has hopes for the building once MacEwan vacates it. If the city buys it, said executive director Diane Kereluk, she would like the proposed Holistic Urban Market to be housed there.

Even when both the Centre for the Arts and the south campuses are sold, Atkinson expects that the university will have to raise an additional $25 million. The plan also requires government approval, and will be preceded by consultations with the community.

The south campus, which is located at 7319 29 Avenue, is worth $30 million. It mainly houses students studying social work, police and security studies.

Mill Woods Christian School has shown interest in purchasing the south side campus, but nothing is official yet.

Grant MacEwan’s Centre for the Arts campus was built in 1981.