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  #521  
Old Posted Mar 20, 2021, 8:42 PM
YYCguys YYCguys is offline
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Originally Posted by Prairiedawg View Post
Walmart is closing the Deer Valley location

https://globalnews.ca/news/7697306/w...tore-closures/
This might also be a good topic for the retail thread! Walmart was growing by leaps and bounds and expanding into smaller markets like Cochrane and Olds in recent years so it’s sad to hear that they are scaling back a bit (due to the pandemic?), especially in the city!
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  #522  
Old Posted Apr 23, 2021, 7:41 PM
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The City of Calgary and its downtown partners must make the bold moves required to shift from vacancy to vibrancy. We are seeking an initial investment of $200 million in our downtown from Council on April 26 that will start this shift.

This initial investment of $200 million is focused on areas that will start to lower office vacancy, improve downtown vibrancy, and support the development of thriving neighbourhoods that attract residents, visitors, and talent for downtown’s businesses.

$45 million in financial incentives for office conversion, office replacement, and new residential development
$5 million in financial incentives to offset +15 Fund contributions for residential development, which has been a significant roadblock for residential development downtown
$55 million for impactful capital projects to improve public spaces, create vibrancy and support complete neighbourhoods
$5 million to activate downtown public spaces with festivals, events and community spaces to build vibrancy
$10 million over four years for a dedicated City of Calgary Downtown team
$80 million for Arts Commons Transformation Phase 1
This is just the beginning of our downtown’s long road to reinvention. The 10-year implementation of The Plan will require near-term and medium to long-term actions, along with a multi-pronged, multi-phased, and multi-stakeholder approach to reinvent Calgary’s downtown and begin the shift from vacancy to vibrancy. We need support of from all levels of government to reverse the course of our downtown.

We encourage you to virtually attend the April 26 City Council meeting to learn about Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan and our initial financial investment in downtown’s road to reinvention.

Our best days are ahead of us. There is no easy fix, but we’ll come back stronger than ever with grit, determination, and collaboration to move the heart of Calgary along the road to reinvention.

Thank you,

Thom Mahler
Program Lead, Downtown Strategy
https://mailchi.mp/68530f5b6981/calg...6?e=8b5fa7728e
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  #523  
Old Posted Apr 23, 2021, 10:49 PM
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davee930 davee930 is offline
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Originally Posted by Coldrsx View Post
The City of Calgary and its downtown partners must make the bold moves required to shift from vacancy to vibrancy. We are seeking an initial investment of $200 million in our downtown from Council on April 26 that will start this shift.

This initial investment of $200 million is focused on areas that will start to lower office vacancy, improve downtown vibrancy, and support the development of thriving neighbourhoods that attract residents, visitors, and talent for downtown’s businesses.

$45 million in financial incentives for office conversion, office replacement, and new residential development
$5 million in financial incentives to offset +15 Fund contributions for residential development, which has been a significant roadblock for residential development downtown
$55 million for impactful capital projects to improve public spaces, create vibrancy and support complete neighbourhoods
$5 million to activate downtown public spaces with festivals, events and community spaces to build vibrancy
$10 million over four years for a dedicated City of Calgary Downtown team
$80 million for Arts Commons Transformation Phase 1
This is just the beginning of our downtown’s long road to reinvention. The 10-year implementation of The Plan will require near-term and medium to long-term actions, along with a multi-pronged, multi-phased, and multi-stakeholder approach to reinvent Calgary’s downtown and begin the shift from vacancy to vibrancy. We need support of from all levels of government to reverse the course of our downtown.

We encourage you to virtually attend the April 26 City Council meeting to learn about Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan and our initial financial investment in downtown’s road to reinvention.

Our best days are ahead of us. There is no easy fix, but we’ll come back stronger than ever with grit, determination, and collaboration to move the heart of Calgary along the road to reinvention.

Thank you,

Thom Mahler
Program Lead, Downtown Strategy
https://mailchi.mp/68530f5b6981/calg...6?e=8b5fa7728e
Sounds great. I really hope Calgary can get creative and bounce back.

My one idea would be to make a raised park/ bike path over the train tracks downtown. Connect the two sides of the city together by having multiple ramps.

Kind of like the high line in NYC. Except better.

Have a long skating path in the winter?

Have little markets? Firepits?

Is it a crazy idea? Could be the same construction as the animal overpasses on the way to Banff.

Would love to present my idea to the city. I'll even make a preliminary plan/rendering of it for free if there's any interest.
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  #524  
Old Posted Apr 24, 2021, 2:26 AM
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  #525  
Old Posted Apr 27, 2021, 8:29 PM
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Passed at Council yesterday I hear.
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  #526  
Old Posted Apr 28, 2021, 1:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Coldrsx View Post
Passed at Council yesterday I hear.
And look, the City just netted out an extra $200 million in 2020 to pay for all this! Basically we are seeing the last gasp death rattle spending hurrah of a expiring mayor and council whose decade of high downtown taxes and restrictive development policies have arguably driven more businesses away than has been attracted by all their spending on downtown pedestrian bridges, bike lanes, new Library, East Village beautification projects. A bunch of new spending on the Arts Commons and the “event center” will certainly make the City nicer, but really does nothing for attracting businesses to the core and there are far nicer places to live just outside of downtown that will make this office conversion plan a non sequitur. Reading the Herald comments section I think most agree the new spending will be ineffective.

The city has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the new Library, the Telus Convention Center, the Stampede Grounds and Convention Center and even on the municipal building. We are now pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into Arts Commons. The downtown is just one big sinkhole of council dollars, every next hundred million is going to put us over the top. Nothing ever pays off and we are just expected to keep subsidizing this downtown largesse indefinitely.

This is just going to waste a lot of money pushing the council’s misguided agenda. The end result will be massive government expenditures, minimal real economic benefits and much higher taxes for the fewer and fewer remaining taxpayers. The is just repeating all the mistakes made in Detroit, I wish Mary Moran would just go away, everything she touches turns to dust.

Should the City be the developer? For Art Commons, sure. For building residences? I don't think so. Competing with developers who have been denied building permits fosters an atmosphere of distrust. This is one reason the core doesn't have any of the amenities which make downtown living attractive.

There is already so much unused residential space in the downtown and Beltline area. Nenshi - why spend $45 million in taxpayer money to convert empty office buildings into more empty condo buildings?

I'm all for revitalizing the downtown core, however, the 45 million for the the office/resident conversion is being miss allocated. In the East Village there is at least two residential towers not even close to full capacity, Bridgeland has two or three residents coming on line by the end of the year and one in the ground, on top of that there are two or three new buildings in the West core.

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/co...wntown-calgary

The City of Calgary ended 2020 with a $219.3-million surplus after government aid packages arrived to help cover the pandemic-fuelled revenue crisis for municipalities across Canada. The number is significantly higher than the $98-million surplus that council’s audit committee heard about last week. That’s because that total included the financials from wholly owned subsidiaries, including Enmax. Strictly looking at city operations, the surplus is bigger.

https://www.calgarysun.com/news/loca...2-6317a4ec5854
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  #527  
Old Posted Apr 29, 2021, 4:55 AM
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The city is not attempting to become a property developer. They have proposed “$45 million in financial incentives for office conversion, office replacement and new residential development”, Source: https://www.calgary.ca/pda/pd/downto...erdowntownplan

There is tons of challenges and risks with converting office buildings. Here is an interesting article from December 2019, and the problem has only gotten worse since then.
https://renx.ca/office-conversions-c...w-far-between/

Office vacancy downtown is a problem. They have to do something. Doing nothing is not going to fix the problem.
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  #528  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2021, 3:14 PM
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ULI panel discussion on Downtown Calgary & its recovery plan from earlier this week.

https://uli-my.sharepoint.com/person...FSakNmYUV4MlVn
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