The Town of Nipawin will purchase the Chamber of Commerce's building for $85,000 plus a $5,000 signing bonus. (Facebook/Nipawin & District Chamber of Commerce)

By Aaron Schulze

Nipawin Chamber Building

Nipawin Chamber and Town agree on building purchase price

Jun 17, 2019 | 2:17 PM

The Town of Nipawin and the Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce agreed to purchase the chamber’s building at Central Park for $85,000 plus a $5,000 signing bonus.

A special Nipawin council meeting took place Friday, June 14 to determine if the town wanted to proceed with the purchase after months of negotiations with the chamber.

Lisa Suchlandt, executive director of the Nipawin and District Chamber of Commerce, said negotiations with the town have been good so far, and the settled price of the building is fair.

“There are a lot of ups and downs when you’re talking about negotiations,” Suchlandt told northeastNOW, “People get emotional about the decision, but ultimately it was a business decision and it makes the best sense for both of us.”

The purchase comes after it was announced the Town of Nipawin announced it would assume visitor information services from the chamber back in April 2019, which resulted in the chamber needing to relocate its office. Chamber President Marlon Zacharias said after their annual general meeting in May that selling the building to the town was the best option, as the town declared chamber’s building and activities were not in line with the Central Park land zoning requirements.

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Suchlandt said the chamber hopes to relocate as close to Nipawin’s downtown core as possible.

Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s chief administrative officer, expects visitor information services will relocate back to the building at Central, citing its highway visibility and accessibility.

“The town will engage in some conversations regarding our strategic planning and make some other determinations in terms of further use of the building, which will be community, and in some case recreationally related,” he said. “We want to make this transition as seamless as we can and the town certainly wants to be as supportive of the chamber’s relocation as they can be. It’s an important entity in this community and we recognize the value and contributions they make.”

Both sides said there are still details of the purchase, including a possession date that will need to finalize over the following weeks. Suchlandt said the chamber will send out a public release once more details are available.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow