Final city report on Nordic spa proposal for Riverbend expected next month

On Monday, Edmonton city council heard from a group that wants to put a Nordic spa in Edmonton.

A multi-acre property in Riverbend, once home to an extravagant estate, is a step closer to being redeveloped as a Nordic spa.

Edmonton city councillors on Monday heard from the Scandinave Group, which detailed to them its plan for the site in the Riverbend neighbourhood.

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The spa operator, whose four locations across Canada include Whistler, B.C., and Blue Mountain in Ontario, wants the parcel of land perched on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River valley re-zoned so it can develop it.

The city’s administration will give council a finalized report with its recommendations for the bylaw changes in about three weeks, which will be followed by a public hearing.

The property is the former estate of real-estate developer and philanthropist Sandy Mactaggart, who in 2010 donated the estate to the University of Alberta, for which he served as chancellor from 1990-94.

The university used the mansion, called Soaring, as a conference centre until 2018 and had it demolished three years later citing high estimated repair costs.

Stantec Consulting, a major Edmonton-based engineering design firm the Scandinave Group hired to perform preliminary work on the site, says it’s completed a traffic study and an extensive geo-technical survey to ensure that, if approved, the project would be compliant with current regulations.