It will be hard not to think of the Bay if a planned purchase by the University of Alberta goes through later this year.

The move by the U of A would see it take over the mainly dormant and largely empty former Bay Building on Jasper Avenue.

It would relocate a number of its operations downtown, ultimately bringing as many as 1,000 people to a building that was at one time the department store's flagship Edmonton operation and is now designated as a municipal historic resource.

While The Bay has long since relocated its downtown store, filling the site with new tenants has been virtually impossible.

Jack Dagley, Business Edge
University of Alberta vice-presidents Don Hickey, facilities and operation, left, and Gary Kachanoski, research, check out the downtown skyline from the roof of the Bay Building.

"The problem was the building was built for a specific purpose and was not conducive to other ventures," says Jim Taylor, executive director of Edmonton's Downtown Business Association. Previous plans, such as transforming it into a home for multiplex cinema, a world trade centre, a potential museum site, and even a parking lot, all stalled.

But now the U of A believes it has found the building that it is seeking to help it conquer its space woes.

"We have the building under contract until Sept. 30, 2005, which means it's up to us to close," says Don Hickey, the university's vice-president of facilities and operations.

The deal, expected to cost the university $60 million to $62 million, has already undergone a technical due diligence on the building. Hickey says nothing surprising turned up. Now the university is building the business case and looking to financing from the municipal, provincial and federal governments so it can seal the deal.

If the project gets the green light, Hickey says the university could have people in the building in about a little over a year from now but more realistically, he says it will take 12 to 18 months, with staff moving in gradually.

In the meantime, the Citytv station (the newly rebranded A-Channel Edmonton) and CHUM's other broadcast operations that are in or being relocated to the building will stay.

There is no question of having them move, says Hickey, noting that communications and broadcast operations could be considered as complementary services to the university's plans for the facility.

"The Bay (building's) large footprint was quite frankly a detriment to large developers, but it works quite well for the use we have in mind for it," added Hickey.

Those uses would see the university relocate its research transition facility (RTF) and TEC Edmonton downtown from their current home just off the main campus. Their existing building is scheduled to be demolished in order to make way for a new $500-million Health Sciences Ambulatory Learning Centre (HSALC), a joint venture between the U of A and Edmonton's Capital Health.

But the RTF, which provides business incubation space and services for startups, and TEC Edmonton, which offers expertise and services to assist inventors and entrepreneurs, are just a part of the U of A plan for the 270,000 sq. ft. of space that it may ultimately end up owning.

Hickey says the U of A is looking at the possibility of transferring certain community outreach programs from various faculties to the new site, citing the faculty of arts, continuing education, or its school of business as potential examples. However, he says, nothing - aside from moving the RTF and TEC Edmonton downtown - has been finalized at this time.

"The primary driver (of the deal) is the commercialization of research. That in itself could attract other types of private-sector occupants," says Hickey. "This would not just be a university facility, but a regional facility that could be opened up to other opportunities from other post-secondary institutions."

Hickey also sees the potential for commercial opportunities opening up in the services sector that would be pertinent to the startup businesses operating onsite - examples could range from cafes to patent lawyers.

For TEC Edmonton CEO Peter Robertson, the pending move is exciting. "We're still very close to the university - only a couple of stops away on the LRT - but we're in the heart of the business community, which is why I think it's very fitting that TEC Edmonton and the RTF move downtown," Robertson says.

"We hope it will open up new opportunities working more closely with the business community," he adds, "and we work closely with NAIT and Grant MacEwan College so we're pleased to be closer to them."

Onware Software Corp. president Fraser Gallop also likes the idea of moving downtown. Onware, a producer of online software for event management and document and communication management for architecture, engineering and construction projects, is a U of A spinoff residing in the RTF building that will be torn down so the HSALC can come online in 2008.

The three-year-old company, which employs five people, likes the fact that there will be more space if it needs it.

"If we run out of space right now there's no room to grow (in the RTF)," says Gallop, who adds that the Bay building is a recognizable landmark that tenants will be proud to show off.

TEC Edmonton, with about 20 staff members - rising to as high as 25 with summer interns - and the companies currently in the RTF could mean an initial 100 people will move downtown.

"We're essentially full now (TEC Edmonton and the RTF), that's why it's good we're moving. We're already outgrowing our current facility," says Robertson.

While Robertson talks as if the deal is just about done, Taylor says that he doesn't believe the university would have made the announcement if it did not believe it has a very good chance of going through with the project.

"I know from discussions I've had with them (the university) that they've been in discussion with the three levels of government for some time. They wouldn't have made an announcement like this if they hadn't had some indications," says Taylor.