Students hoping for some green space at Gordon Bell High School received bad news Friday.

A land swap deal between the province of Manitoba and Canada Post has been scrapped by the Crown corporation, which plans to build a letter-sorting depot on the former car dealership property at Portage and Broadway avenues.

Gordon Bell administrators and students would like to turn the land into a much-needed playing field for the school.

To facilitate that, the provincial government offered the corporation property at Higgins Avenue and Main Street in exchange for the land by the school.

Negotiations looked promising on Thursday but on Friday, Canada Post rejected the deal for financial reasons. The company also said the Main Street location didn't suit its needs.

The catchment area the new facility will serve ranges from the downtown to the Polo Park mall area. The location by Gordon Bell is right in the middle of the area, while the Main and Higgins location is off the path.

"It's completely impractical for 80 letter carriers to travel back and forth [from Higgins] to the downtown, to western Winnipeg, to past Polo Park, to go back and forth every day to deliver mail to our customers," said spokesperson Kathy Neal.

Canada Post will begin construction of the facility in late summer if another deal can't be worked out, she said.

Manitoba Education Minister Peter Bjornson is urging the corporation to reconsider the offer.

"We are asking them … to take another look at it and review what we've offered. I've also written the federal minister in this regard," he said. "We feel it's a very fair offer. We feel you have land for land of equal size and equal value."

Bjornson wouldn't say if the province would offer an added financial incentive to Canada Post to take the land deal. He also commended the students at Gordon Bell for championing the cause of getting a green space for the school.

"The benefit to the [Gordon Bell-area] neighbourhood in Winnipeg that needs green space, but also a neighbourhood in downtown Winnipeg [Higgins and Main] that needs more development, would be a very appropriate use of the land in both cases," Bjornson said.