Downtown Edmonton grows near proposed arena site
BY ELISE STOLTE, EDMONTON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 9:25 AM
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Natalie Raczkowski, area sales manager for Westrich Pacific Corp., looks over the construction site where the company is developing new condos at 10238 103rd St.
Photograph by: Ed Kaiser, Edmonton Journal , Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - A $75-million residential tower will break ground Thursday one block away from the proposed arena site.
"Our presales sold out almost the whole building," said area sales manager Natalie Raczkowski, speaking of the Ultima, a 199-unit tower going up at 10238 103rd St. being built by developer Westrich Pacific.
Nearly 75 per cent of the units were sold June 2, their first day of sales. "The response to the Ultima is why we are moving ahead so quickly with our Encore," she said.
"I wouldn't say (the proposed arena) was the main driver of sales, but it definitely helped," Raczkowski said. "We saw a great opportunity downtown. The arena was something we thought was a huge bonus."
Construction on the 32-storey Ultima started this week and is expected to be complete by spring 2015. Raczkowski said the company hopes to start construction for Encore next year.
Encore is being designed for more than 40 storeys, and would be the highest residential tower in Edmonton.
The downtown arena deal was thrown into jeopardy last week when city negotiators presented city council with a list of new requests from the Katz Group.
Oilers owner Daryl Katz has argued he needs a casino deal to give an additional source of revenue. If that doesn't come through, he says, he'll need a $6-million annual subsidy to pay for the arena and keep the Oilers in Edmonton.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sport...651/story.html