[Jimby]

Montana condos, Beltline SW

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6737.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/3129887996_a93fab37aa_b.jpg


Verana condos, Bridgeland NE

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6689.jpg


seniors housing, Bridgeland NE

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6672.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6677.jpg


Penn West Plaza 2. PWP 1 is complete and occupied, PWP 2 will be 20 floors.
Downtown, SW. To the left is Bankers Court office building which is finishing construction.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6662.jpg


Eighth Avenue Place, a billion dollar 2 office tower project proceeding without any leases signed. Downtown, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6661.jpg


Jamieson Place, well on the way to 38 floors. Fully leased. Downtown SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6603.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6596.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3093/3180314170_651881b6a7_b.jpg


Waterfront condos, Eau Claire district/Chinatown, downtown, SW

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6593.jpg

Oscar condos, Eau Claire district downtown, SW

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6590.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6545.jpg


Louise Station/Solaire condos. Eau Claire district downtown, SW.
affordable housing, fire station, condos

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6539.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6535.jpg


Centennial Place, 23 and 41 storey office towers, Eau Claire district downtown, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6521.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC5207.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC5219.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC5184.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/DSCN0180.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/DSCN0168.jpg

arriVa, second condo tower going up. Victoria Park, east Beltline district, SE.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6412.jpg

recently completed Sasso/Vetro condo towers with main floor retail opening soon. Victoria Park, east Beltline, SE.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6414.jpg

Nuera 1, the first of twin 36 floor condos. On the right is the recently completed Stampede Station office building which is fully leased.
Victoria Park, east Beltline, SE

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6410.jpg


Keynote office building, 2 condo towers, and main floor retail including a Sunterra food store. Victoria Park, east Beltline, SE.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6402.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6382.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6351.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/3129641420_e464c562c8_b.jpg

Palliser South office building, downtown, SE.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6350.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6383.jpg

Ovation condos at Westgate Park, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6317.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6323.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1168/3164434421_2f271847b1_b.jpg


http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6309.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6325.jpg

Treo condos with main floor retail

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6305.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6299.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6295.jpg

United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) new head office at WestMount, Lincoln Park SW.


http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6293.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6284.jpg

Carma Developers new head office at WestMount

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6289.jpg

Quarry Park, a billion dollar mainly office park with some future residential and retail on the site of a former gravel pit beside the Bow river, SE.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6070.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6064.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6057.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6051.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6045.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6034.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6054.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6000.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC5979.jpg

new Canadian head office of Jacobs Engineering at Quarry Park

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC5985.jpg


Calgary Board of Education new admin building. This project is further along than this pic from November. Connaught district, west Beltline, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC3988.jpg


Xenex condos, Beltline, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC3995.jpg

Strategic on 4th office building. Mission district, SW.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC6745.jpg


newly completed District #1 police station, Calgary Police Service. Ramsay district, SE.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3110/3179493103_881f820194_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/3201107898_3cee63d4d1_b.jpg

Tweed condos. Cliff Bungalow district, SW.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3509/3186574962_de5a38fc89_b.jpg


row housing, lower Mount Royal, SW.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3331/3186568262_2ffba1ac12_b.jpg

Riverfront Pointe 1 & 2 condos, downtown, SE


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3324/3180275074_2035e35fbf_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/3180258630_f58aef233e_b.jpg

Looking towards the east Beltline through east downtown. The U.S. flag is on the Consulate building, Rocky Mountain Plaza, SE.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/3179412165_c93da3a2e7_b.jpg

The Bow, Calgary's premier development, a billion dollar plus 58 storey office building which will be the tallest in Canada outside of downtown Toronto, downtown SE.
(Sorry this is a repeat from my last thread - in a couple of months as it rises, it will be more interesting)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3168108769_526ea763e3_b.jpg


sunrise from my balcony. The cranes are at Centron office park, Blackfoot Trail SE.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/3200931091_94f9f7b6c3_b.jpg


This not a complete tour. Other notable projects are at the university, SAIT, 3 hospitals, the new $1.6 billion south hospital, north ring road, the massive Cross Iron Mills mall, Chinook shopping Centre expansion (3 cranes), Le Germaine (office-boutique hotel-condos on top) and plenty of other projects. Thanks for viewing.

[dugdogmaster]

Nice:cheers:

[DLLB]

Great update on what's happening in Calgary. Beautiful sunrise picture. I bet you will see a lot of those.

[Top Of The Park]

I'm sure everyone is amazed at the amount of construction

[Jimby]

thanks for the comments!

I went out to Cross Iron Mills mall today to have a look. It is opening in August. It is outside the City of Calgary in the Municipal District of Rockyview near the community of Balzac.
The City of Calgary has refused to provide any services to the mall which meant they have had to scramble to find a source for water.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC7079.jpg

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC7072.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3208212050_1bc788c17d_b.jpg



adjacent to Cross Iron Mills is Bass Pro Shops, a first for western Canada.
It is opening in early April.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC7057.jpg


http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC7053.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3484/3208219146_c4217daf2d_b.jpg


future Stoney Trail (NW ring road) west of Deerfoot Trail which is near the mall

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj184/lumin8_bucket/_DSC7082.jpg

[Jimby]

A Boom in Office Towers in Calgary


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/business/21calgary.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=calgary&st=cse&scp=1

By LINDA BAKER
Published: January 20, 2009

CALGARY, Alberta — When the Bow, an office tower under construction in downtown Calgary, is completed in 2011, the 58-story building will be the tallest structure in Canada west of Toronto.


Designed by the London architecture firm Foster & Partners, the Bow is to have a crescent-shaped exterior, three floors of indoor green spaces for employees to enjoy and passive solar orientation to reduce energy use. Its cost is about 1 billion Canadian dollars, equal to about $800 million.

“It’s a fascinating building,” said Alan Boras, a spokesman for the Bow’s future tenant, EnCana, one of Canada’s largest oil and gas corporations. “We hope it will be a place Calgarians can be proud of.”

The Bow is one of eight office towers under construction in downtown Calgary, a city of one million people and the headquarters for Canada’s fossil fuel industry. Prompted by a rise in oil prices in recent years as well as expanded production from Alberta’s enormous oil sands reserves, the office boom also reflects this city’s growing attention to bold architecture and environmentally friendly construction.

But even as the Calgary skyline is being transformed, the global credit crisis and the implosion in oil prices are beginning to take a toll. Mr. Boras said that EnCana would drill about 40 percent fewer wells this year but that the cutbacks would not affect its plans to move into the Bow, which is named after the river bordering downtown.

The project is not without problems, however. In November, the Bow’s owner, H & R REIT, said it was having trouble securing construction financing, although work had not been halted.

None of the office projects have been put on hold, said Greg Kwong, regional managing director for the Calgary office of CB Richard Ellis. Nevertheless, the pace of leasing is down, and developers are worried about a glut in the marketplace as the new crop of towers is completed. Vacancy rates in existing buildings are up, although only to 5.2 percent, a rate that most other cities would envy, but still considerably higher than the level of about two years ago.

Fossil fuel companies and concerns that do business with them occupy 75 percent of the office space downtown, said R. Scott Hutcheson, chief executive of Aspen Properties, a local real estate company. “When that industry tanks, it has a domino effect,” he said.

Aspen is developing Palliser South, a 300,000-square-foot cantilevered office complex due to open next summer. So far, it is only 33 percent leased, Mr. Hutcheson said. “We are crossing our fingers in this environment,” he said.

A couple of years ago, the mood in this city, about 80 miles east of the Rocky Mountains, was almost giddy. From 2003 to 2007, as oil prices escalated, downtown office rents rose by two and a half times, to 39.60 Canadian dollars a square foot, from 15.25. In 2008, rates dipped to 38.20 Canadian dollars, about $30.56 at current exchange rates. Office vacancy rates went from just under 12 percent in 2005 to less than 1 percent in 2007, Mr. Kwong said. “The market absolutely rocked,” he said.

Developers paid attention. “We looked at oil prices, saw them going up and had lived in Calgary long enough to realize that means we are going to need space,” said Randy Magnussen, senior vice president for Bentall Real Estate Services.

Bentall recently completed the Livingston Place development, the first building in Calgary to be built on speculation in 20 years, at a cost of about $115 million. The project, which has twin towers covering about 800,000 square feet, is leased to Pengrowth Energy Trust, Marsh Canada Ltd. and Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltd.

The expanded output of Alberta’s oil sands reserves, considered second in capacity only to Saudi Arabian reserves although harder to extract, also fed the surge in construction, Mr. Kwong said. From 1998 to 2008, oil sands production doubled, to about one million barrels a year, said David McColl, an economist with the Canadian Energy Research Institute.

The eight new office towers, covering 5.5 million square feet and representing an increase of almost 15 percent in downtown capacity, suggest a new design sensibility for this city, often described as a “cow town” because of the Calgary Stampede, considered the world’s largest annual rodeo.

Existing buildings are boxy and conventional, said Richard White, an architect and former official of the Downtown Association. Now developers are creating structures that “express the synthesis of the angularity of the mountains and ice fields with the flatness of the big blue prairie sky,” he said.

In an effort to upgrade city architecture, the City Council voted in December to hire the renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava to design two pedestrian bridges over the Bow.

Green construction is another distinguishing feature of the office towers. Environmental consciousness began here a few years ago, when Calgary became the first major Canadian city to adopt a requirement that public buildings meet the standards established by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

These measures are administered by the Canadian Green Building Council, a sister organization of the United States Green Building Council, which created LEED ratings. The city’s sustainable building efforts are being imitated in the private sector.

Bentall Real Estate Services is developing Jamieson Place, a 38-story tower aiming for LEED silver certification. Future tenants include ARC Resources, a fossil fuel trust. “Environmental stewardship is critical to our employees,” said Terry Gill, vice president of corporate resources for ARC Resources.

Early leasing for Jamieson Place took a year and was completed in December 2007, Mr. Magnussen said. Today, landlords are not quite so lucky. Eighth Avenue Place, a blocklong landmark development still under construction, has no tenants at all. The LEED gold-rated building, featuring a roof that resembles a “sculptured mountain peak,” with plantings that collect and filter rainwater, is being built on speculation, said John Smith, vice president of 20Vic, the managing developer. “It was a question of anticipation of demand in the marketplace,” he said.

Then there is the Bow, which is fully leased to EnCana but does not have all of its financing. Larry Froom, H & R’s chief financial officer, said the company hoped to resolve the issue by the end of March. If that does not happen, H & R may sell assets, Mr. Froom said.

In the energy industry, there are indications of a slowdown. In contrast to previous years, oil sands growth will be “practically zero” from 2009 to 2013, Mr. McColl said. The end of the industry’s frantic growth is a factor as office rents have been reduced and sublease space has increased to 33 percent of all vacancies in 2008, up from 20 percent in 2007, Mr. Kwong said.

Still, the impact of the downturn is not expected to be as severe as others in city history, he said. After oil prices collapsed in 1991, vacancy rates in Calgary increased from about 7 percent to more than 20 percent in a single year.

Today, oil sands plants, which take much longer to build than conventional oil operations, help stabilize the market, even though new projects have been delayed, Mr. Kwong said.

By 2011, Calgary’s downtown footprint may be big, bold and green. One thing will not have changed. “There has been a certain amount of diversification in Calgary over the past 10 years,” Mr. Hutcheson said. But the city, he said, still runs on oil and gas.



A version of this article appeared in print on January 21, 2009, on page B5 of the New York edition.