Article on difficulty getting people to live downtown in Star Phoenix:
http://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/co...still-a-puzzle
I actually think the article should be titled, "no place" for people to live downtown. To me, the lack of quality product downtown is the real deterrent. I can only assume that there are a fairly large number of 'boomers' such as my wife and I that would consider downsizing and moving downtown to walkable amenities. We have actively looked for several years and have just not found a product that we want. The "newest" option would be the conversion of the KG, which we did consider.
We also had our name in for the bit of a 'fiasco" that was the pre-sales for Riverlanding No1. As it was, we were not prepared to pay $700,000 for 1,000 sq ft. We need a developer to build a condo project/tower that has units 1,000 to 1,300 sq ft in size with 2 bedrooms that are priced in the $400,000 to $600,000 range and then watch that sell out quickly too!
So....I don't think it is a matter of people not wanting to live downtown but rather where is the appropriate product? Come on developers.....step up and build what the market is looking for please!