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Leftover land up for grabs at old Ernest Manning School site

School relocated to make way for west LRT station

By Jason Markusoff, Calgary Herald November 3, 2011

CALGARY — The city is now giving Ernest Manning High School alumni the chance to erect condos on the spot where they once sat through Chemistry 10, suited up for football tryouts and flung a forkful of mashed potatoes across the cafeteria.

Having committed about $30 million to relocate the high school to make way for west LRT’s lone underground station, the city began soliciting proposals Thursday on the leftover land parcels, where officials want high-density, transit-friendly developments.

A local real estate executive said he’s unsure the city will recoup that school building money in this market, although that’s not necessarily the city’s goal for the roughly 3 hec#tares of developable land.

In fact, the city won’t necessarily seek the highest bidder on that land, land servicing manager Robert Moskovitz said.

Rather, they want a developer who will commit to environmentally sustainable projects with affordable housing — and can make it happen within a few years.

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Two years ago, council endorsed the Westbrook Village area redevelopment plan, which encourages a mixture of highrise and mid-size residential and mixed-use towers throughout the former school site and on lands where Westbrook Mall now sits. The city wants similar transit-oriented developments near LRT stations citywide, including where towers are planned at Brentwood station.

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It’s likely a sale price to the buyers of those parcels wouldn’t be finalized or disclosed for at least a year.

The city will require that any developer devote at least two per cent of the units to affordable housing,

City hall’s real-estate wing has also begun plans which will lead to similar sales plans for public land around two stations on the south C-Train line. The higher-density projects would encompass the current bus loop and former YMCA site near Heritage LRT, and the massive park-and-ride lot at Anderson station.

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