The agreement between Carpere Canada and the city of Moose Jaw passed an important step at City Council Monday night.

Carpere is buying the Southeast Industrial Park for $10,000 an acre, plus potential service charges on those lands for $49,600 per acre. It is a big opportunity for the city, according to Mayor Fraser Tolmie.

“For the city, this is millions of dollars, not only in land and development levies, but also there’s potential for billions of dollars in investment,” said Tolmie. “(As well as) potential for outside growth and opening our borders for international trade.”

The agreement marks the largest land deal in the history of Moose Jaw. But the work isn’t over yet.

“There’s going to be continued steps with administration and Carpere, to finalize some of the servicing agreements and look at plans that are going to happen out in the industrial park,” he said.

It’s still a big first step on a project that may well bring the city money and employment.

“We’ve been working very hard on this project for a number of months,” said Tolmie. “Obviously I’m extremely excited about this. This is a great milestone. It’s great news for our community. We’ve achieved a milestone here and we’re looking forward to the next steps and partnering with Carpereas they make plans to move to our community.”

There are 716 acres of industrial land and 64 acres of residential land negotiated in the argeement, and the potential benefit to the city if all of the land is developed would be approximately $46.5 million. The next step for both parties will be moving into detailed planning.

Tolmie said the city will look to partner with Carpere to bring industries in.