Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanroo
That's some interesting perspective. What, in your view, are the biggest differences now? And when did things really start to change?
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I would say things started changing in the late 90s, but there were a series of starts.
The city council of the day introduced a new incentive program for developers to build new condos downtown - this added more residents but we ended up with ugly buildings.
The oil boom of the 2000s really drove things up a few more gears - new condos couldn't keep up with demand, office towers started filling up again, new Art Gallery of Alberta was built, and the EPCOR tower was built.
Things petered out a bit during the 2008 recession but the new arena district has really moved things into overdrive with the towers, hotel and such!
Another catalyst for downtown change was closing the City Centre Airport a couple of years ago. The flight paths imposed strict limits on vertical downtown growth for decades - I've heard some tower proposals and head office relocations eventually went to Calgary because of that. There's other things like the new Royal Alberta Museum and the proposed Galleria district.
I do worry about a glut of office space because so far the new buildings have mostly attracted lateral movement within downtown instead of drawing companies from the suburbs and from other cities - but time will tell.
- My $55G condo has quadrupled in value, at one about 2007 it was 6X my purchase price! At that time I had realtors constantly banging down my door asking if I'm ready to sell.
- Nightlife has moved back to downtown, mostly due to a moratorium on nightclubs on Whyte Ave. But we still need more live venues, and more places for a mature upscale clientele.
- Weekend nights, the sidewalks and patios are full of people.
- CN railyards now turned into a university campus and a series of strip malls. Will also see another strip mall where the Molson brewery used to be. Oh, and a new NHL arena. CP Railyards turned into strip malls, highrises, parks and walking trails.
- 105 St bridge over the CN railyards is gone, but we're getting an iconic new Walterdale Bridge to welcome travellers coming into downtown from the south.
- Hookers now ply their trade on the internet, but now a bigger street issue these days are homeless people, screaming drunks on oven cleaner, junkies and panhandlers.
- 104 St - a former no-man's land - is now one of downtown's destination streets. The retail scene on 4th there is currently in flux, especially with the now empty Sobeys where the old Cecil Hotel used to be.
- Although Sobeys has exited downtown, we still have Save On Foods, Safeway in Oliver Square, and a rumored new grocery for the arena district.
- Manulife 2 podium sitting empty but long rumored for a new tower.
- 102 Ave is about to be turned into an LRT and bike corridor