Saskatoon city council (Saskatchewan, Canada) has approved choosing the team Integrated Team Solutions (ITS) as the preferred bidder for the development of the new Saskatoon Civic Operations Centre PPP project.

The ITS consortium is composed by EllisDon Capital Inc., Fengate Capital, Kasian Architecture, EllisDon Corporation and Cofely Services Inc. The team beat out competition from two others shortlisted consortia: Berry Infrastructure Partners and Plenary Infrastructure COC.

The project includes the following:

• Design, construction, financing and maintenance of a new bus Transit Facility;
• Design, construction, financing, maintenance and operation of a new Snow Management Facility; and,
• The relocation and decommissioning of selected equipment and materials from the current Transit site (Caswell Hill site).

The total project investment is estimated at CAD128 million. 

Saskatoon city council has also approved financing of about CAD$100 million for the project. The project's budget involves payments of CAD$11 million a year to the successful consortium, which amounts to CAD$275 million over the 25-year contract period. These payments cover operation and maintenance of the facility, but only partial operation of the snow management component.

It is expected that the federal government's P3 fund will pay part of the capital costs.

Construction works are set to begin in early 2015. The new building is expected to be finished by late 2016.

The second phase of the project will involve the eventual relocation of City Yards.

The Civic Operations Centre is 180 acres, located just west of the Landfill, off Dundonald Avenue. The new Civic Operations Centre aims to improve cooperation and coordination between services, facilitating the sharing of resources, tools and equipment, administrative and meeting space, and support functions like mechanical services.