University of Alberta to buy Bay building

The University of Alberta is gearing up to buy the ancient Hudson’s Bay building in downtown Edmonton. The purchase would solve two major problems – what to do with the aging building in the heart of our downtown, and how to deal with the space crunch for the ever growing university.

If the deal goes through, as many as 1,000 continuing education students would take both day and night classes in the building as early as September 2006.

The university’s research transition facility and its more than 90 academics would also set up shop in the building. They would be joined by 30 workers from TEC Edmonton, a joint partnership between the city and the university, which is associated with the research operation.

I really hope this goes through, and it seems quite likely now. Mayor Mandel has long supported such a deal, and new university president Indira Samarasekera has also placed her support behind the purchase. And the good news is that the university has no plans to make CHUM (which owns A-Channel, and The Bounce) to move out.

I really like the idea – it makes a lot of sense. The LRT directly connects the building to the current university campus, and having a downtown presence will definitely help both businesses and the university. Thank goodness the proposals to turn the building into a parkade were turned down – a downtown University of Alberta location sounds much better for our city.

Read: Edmonton Journal