Railtown (sometimes Rail Town or Remington Lands) refers to a stalled residential mixed-use high-rise development proposal — straddling the CPKC rail corridor, between 4 St and 7 St SE — in Downtown Calgary.
The site has been identified by the Province of Alberta as the location for their proposed “Grand Central Station,” envisioned as a hub for the Green Line, high speed rail between Edmonton, and commuter rail between various satellite cities of Calgary.
The future of the development is uncertain, stalling during a decades-long land sale dispute between Remington Developments, Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and the Province of Alberta.
History[1]
CP Rail originally agreed to sell the lands Remington Developments in 2002,(p. 2) for comprehensive redevelopment of the site, linking together East Village and Stampede Park.
Remington retained architecture firm IBI Group (now known as Arcadis) to conceptualize the development.(p. 14) IBI Group had previously analyzed the potential value and business case for redevelopment on the lands in 2001, and 1996, as commissioned by CP Rail.(p. 537)
The Province of Alberta attempted to acquire the southern portion of the site in 2006, for the development of High Speed Rail between Calgary and Edmonton — offering more to CP Rail than Remington for the land.(p. 15)
CP Rail agreed in March 2007 to close a land agreement with the Province in December 2007, and argued that the contract with Remington would have expired in June 2007, and that the lands had been used actively for railroad operations(p. 25) — thus, unsuitable for redevelopment during the course of the contract.
Remington launched a breach of contract lawsuit against CP Rail in 2008, amending the suit to include the Province for inducing breach of contract in 2009.(p. 27)
The Court of King’s Bench of Alberta found CPKC and the Province of Alberta liable to Remington for over $160 million in damages in 2022, calculated as adjusted loss in profits from the breach of contract.
In 2024, AECOM referred to the area south of the tracks as “Remington Development” in conceptual renderings of “Grand Central Station” in their report analyzing alternative alignments for the Green Line LRT, as commissioned by the Province of Alberta.[2]
Remington Development Corporation v Canadian Pacific Railway Company, 2022 ABKB 692 (CanLII), https://canlii.ca/t/jsn4q, retrieved on 2025-01-02 ↩︎
Calgary Green Line : Alternative Alignments Assessment - Province of Alberta Open Government . Calgary green line : alternative alignments assessment - Open Government. retrieved on 2025-01-02 ↩︎