^^^ There've been several proposals for ~30 to ~40 storey developments in Saskatoon in the past couple years i.e. Saskatoon Library, City Centre Twin Towers, 3rd Ave United Church redevelopment.
The Midtown Plaza project just looks like the most logical one to precede considering that the Plaza has been a big success over past half a century, looks like
Cushman & Wakefield Developers have been planning on Sears exit from the Mall to redevelop for some time now with this developments unveiling this past Fall.
The biggest risk for changes to this plan, as shown below, may be with the potential successor to SaskTel Centre Coliseum with a plan for another NHL sized arena, this time downtown, and possibly in one of redevelopment zones for Midtown Plaza's North or South above ground parking lots.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskat...rena-1.3732690
http://www.cwcanadaassetservices.com/development/midtown-plaza-redevelopment/
For a primer on recent Saskatoon developments:
The
RiverLanding triple tower project is currently being built next to the Remai Modern Art Gallery, The #1 condo tower part of project was more than 80% sold out first weekend condo office opened suggesting demand for quality downtown condos is high.
http://www.urbancapital.ca/no1riverlanding-saskatoon/https://www.saskatoon.ca/business-de...wn-master-plan
The same developer for the condo portion of this project also has plans for a similar condo high-rise across the river on south bank and another parcel of land zoned for a 25 storey building across Idlywld freeway from Riverlanding is set for sale by the city this year...
As far as land available for development downtown in Saskatoon, the city does have a lot of downtown surface parking lots, but a lot of the land has already been staked out. North Downtown Railway area border on the north with SaskPolyTech and on the south with the new Saskatoon Police Station (see largest building in center of right picture above) and is similar to Edmonton's city centre airport development plan.
In the last few months, other projects, albeit low rise, have been set for construction in downtown Saskatoon for 2018.
https://twitter.com/CCLC_SK/status/885230509575380992 http://thestarphoenix.com/news/local...-begin-in-2018
Meanwhile, across the river from downtown, The University of Saskatchewan, Continuing work on the $1/4 Billion Children's Hospital & having recently completed construction of it's
Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites Hotel this past Fall, now have plans for more developments in
College Quarter on U of S Campus.
https://www.ihg.com/staybridge/hotel...sb/hoteldetail https://www.caubo.ca/17a-fn08_rozon_...=Collaboration
Saskatoon downtown redevelopment is stronger than ever since the city has a very large NIMBY community that objects with having projects in their residential neighbourhoods, Market Mall Condo project that would have included 440 units is on hold largely because of nearby residents objections,
Escala in Broadway district reduced project height from 10 to 7 storeys etc,
so most development in Saskatoon is still in north end like
Aerogreen Business Park or in new suburban residential, retail & office parks such as
Brighton developments.
http://www.meridiandevelopment.ca/escala http://brightoncommunity.ca/