I think the Great Gulf project would get a few votes. Really good sign when these types of developers are eager to expand here. I think we'll see a steady stream of projects continue to launch though at a slower pace, though once the economy bounces back we might be in for our largest inner-city residential cycle to date.
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Originally Posted by Surrealplaces
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Toronto developer looks to build two-tower condo project in East Village
MARIO TONEGUZZI, CALGARY HERALD
More from Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
Published on: April 22, 2015
Last Updated: April 22, 2015 4:36 PM MDT
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Toronto developer Great Gulf is hoping to make its first foray into the Calgary residential real estate market with a proposed two-tower development in East Village, just east of the federal Harry Hays building.
Christopher Wein, president of Great Gulf Residential, said the project, at 304 Macleod Trail S.E., would include 443 units in towers of 22 and 24 storeys.
A development permit application has been submitted to the city.
“We’re really designing the units for urban professionals that want to live downtown,” said Wein. “We think Calgary has got a very dynamic, exciting downtown. We think it’s a city that is going to continue to grow and continue to attract lots of young professionals both from within Canada and immigrants coming from overseas.”
From a design perspective, he said the company wanted to bring something different to the marketplace. Wein said there are many local and Vancouver-based developers who are very active in Calgary condo development.
“We thought now was a good opportunity for us to start to develop in Calgary,” he said.
“It architecturally creates quite a striking project. Quite a striking two towers.”
Wein said the company is working on a sales and marketing strategy and it hopes to enter the market in late fall of this year or early in 2016.
“Depending on how the market reacts to our project and how sales perform, then we would hope to get started on the project construction-wise as soon after launch as we possibly can,” he said. “Usually we like to bring a project to market and let it have a sales process that runs sort of maybe for six months before we would look to a construction start.”
Wein said Calgary’s downtown has a lot of room to grow in urban density.
“Calgary has a very dynamic downtown with respect to office and retail and recreation. However, we think it is under-served residentially. Calgary is quite a big sprawling city. I think it’s historically not had a great deal of truly downtown residential development,” he said.
“We’re certainly seeing some good success with East Village and the Beltline has always performed quite well.”
He said Toronto has had much success with residential towers close to the central business district and the company is quite excited about its potential development site in Calgary.
“You’re right on the edge of the central business district and from a recreational perspective, we’re slightly set back from the (Bow River) and the RiverWalk which we think is a tremendous natural asset to the City of Calgary,” said Wein.
The transformation taking place on the east side of Calgary’s downtown is staggering, said Susan Veres, spokesperson of Calgary Municipal Land Corp., which is developing the East Village area just east of City Hall.
“East Village may be a considered a catalyst for this type of investment and this particular project by Great Gulf will be a great complement to the plans we have been rolling out.”
Calgary Councillor Druh Farrell said it’s exciting to see developers from outside of Calgary bringing new ideas to the city.
“Their approach is often different,” she said. “They’re bringing in high-quality architecture and high-quality public realm (landscape). They’re raising the bar.
“It’s not surprising that we’re now starting to see the private landowners look at developing their properties in the East Village. We expected that the city needs to go first (with CMLC development) but now we’re starting to see the private landowners bring forward plans and it shows the optimism for East Village but also that urban living.”
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