DEBERT — A Cold War-era bunker built to protect military and political leaders from a feared nuclear strike is in the process of changing hands.

A new Nova Scotia software firm, Bastion Host Ltd., is negotiating with the Colchester Regional Development Agency to buy the Diefenbunker. The company plans to offer a secure data centre and information technology services storage to clients in New York and London.

The deal for the underground relic was supposed to close last Friday, agency executive director Jo Ann Fewer said Wednesday. But the buyer and seller didn’t agree on the final terms, so lawyers are working on it, she said.

A judge will likely rule on interpretation of the clause of the agreement by mid-November, said Halifax lawyer David Fraser, Bastion Host’s representative.

"We want the best deal for the community," Ms. Fewer said, adding that details of the incomplete sale could not be released.

The 63,000-square-foot bunker is the largest of six self-contained nuclear fallout shelters ordered built at Debert in 1964 by then-prime minister John Diefenbaker.

It cost $2.7 million to build, in 1960s funds, and was nicknamed after the prime minister, as were about nine other shelters across the country.

The bunker was turned over to the community with the remainder of Canadian Forces Station Debert after the military closed the site in 1997...

See the full story at http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/966618.html