Penhold town council has settled on a price with a landowner for land that was expropriated in 2008 to build the multiplex.
Mayor Dennis Cooper said council is just waiting on the landowner, Cornelis (Casey) den Boer, to sign the agreement. He said council passed the motion to purchase the land after the in camera session of the Jan. 23 meeting.
"Then the land is officially ours," Cooper said.
Cooper said the price was approximately $800,000. In initial talks the landowner had priced his land at around $7 million while council was offering about $500,000.
"This has taken up probably three years," Cooper said, noting both sides had gotten adjusters to get estimates on the land.
Den Boer said he was "very" relieved to have the process concluded.
"Everything is finished," he said. "It's been a long drag."
In 2008, the town decided to expropriate 72 acres of land from den Boer to move forward with the Penhold Regional Multiplex complex. The land had been annexed from Red Deer County to the town and it was the preferred site for the multiplex.
The town still had to pay den Boer for the land but it's taken since the time of the expropriation to the Jan. 23 council meeting to determine the price.
