Calling it an early Christmas present for the City of Moose Jaw, elected officials and SaskPower have signed an "Option to Purchase" agreement that will pave the way for a huge economic project on the south side of the city.

Moose Jaw City Council struck a land deal with the Crown Corporation on Wednesday and gave final approval for an Option to Purchase over the lunch hour Friday. The 110 acres of land is in the new south industrial park, directly north of the sewage lagoons. As part of the $615,000 agreement that expires at the end of 2019, SaskPower has also agreed to build $4 million worth of water infrastructure, $1.5 million worth of roads in the industrial park and half a million dollar sewer line to service the power plant.

SaskPower Director of Generation Assessment and Planning Doug Opseth said it was Moose Jaw's proactive approach that led to this deal, explaining that Moose Jaw wasn't even on their radar when they first started.

"We started with 14 projects and through a bunch of work, we narrowed it down to three specific locations," said Opseth. "Then in 2016, we were approached by the city of Moose Jaw with a concept that you were looking to set up a new industrial park and you came to us and said that this might be a really good location for the project."

Around 600 people will be needed to build the plant that will use natural gas and steam to generate electricity. Opseth explained that the combination of steam and natural gas will cut their greenhouse gas emissions and allow them to increase or decrease production depending on the needs of the entire power system.

Details released Friday show there's at least another full year of planning and studies needed before construction can start sometime in 2020 with full operation expected by 2024 but a goal of having it running sometime in 2023.