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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

I always thought the Denny's was kind of funky for a Denny's, but this will be a good addition, especially if they decide to do a color change before building it. White with one other accent color and it would actually look pretty good IMO.
 
The faded yellow and orange remind me of the old lawnchairs from the 70s my parents had while I was growing up. Average form factor, terrible appearance. I agree that a 2 story podium would work better in this location. Maybe even no podium setback since it's on the north side of the street? 17th deserves better.... even if I do really appreciate that it is bringing a much needed population and vibrancy boost to the east end.
This one is actually pretty far west - 10 St.
 
Ooops. Was thinking west, typed east. Used to hit up the BPs in that spot before it became a Dennys as it was one of the only places in the Beltline where they would show sports with the sound on. Both east and west ends could actually use the boost in population and vibrancy. 17th is strong between 4th St and 8th St and dies out pretty quickly outside of the core blocks.
 
I was thinking, things seem to be going well for continued multi-family construction momentum in Calgary. Continuing on that thought, I came across an article that loosely ties into the continued construction of rental buildings.

Calgary is mentioned a couple times in the article below but really this article had me thinking about Calgary's continued building in the face of slowdowns in other centres. Calgary's condo market has never been that hot and prices have always been pretty reasonable; people don't seem to want to buy condos as investments on a large scale where a boom in construction is imminent. I think that's because the rental demand is being fairly well supplied.

Rental buildings on the other hand seem to be doing well. There are all the conversions and continued new construction. If condos continue to be a modest investment in Calgary for developers and buyers, I can see rental buildings continue to be proposed and converted from office buildings.

In this scenario, everyone should benefit: Renters benefit from supply being relatively equal to demand, so prices stay where they are or go down and developers benefit from the decently steady stream of renters, especially as Calgary continues to attract newcomers from other provinces and countries. Meanwhile condo buyers should still see some new construction that should supply the smaller demand that is there without developers over-building the market and sinking condo prices. Investment condo buyers should be able to be modestly successful but not do well enough to start a condo construction boom fed by investors.

I really see Calgary being in a bit of a Goldilocks zone for multi-family construction, steady development of all types should continue.

 
I was thinking, things seem to be going well for continued multi-family construction momentum in Calgary. Continuing on that thought, I came across an article that loosely ties into the continued construction of rental buildings.

Calgary is mentioned a couple times in the article below but really this article had me thinking about Calgary's continued building in the face of slowdowns in other centres. Calgary's condo market has never been that hot and prices have always been pretty reasonable; people don't seem to want to buy condos as investments on a large scale where a boom in construction is imminent. I think that's because the rental demand is being fairly well supplied.

Rental buildings on the other hand seem to be doing well. There are all the conversions and continued new construction. If condos continue to be a modest investment in Calgary for developers and buyers, I can see rental buildings continue to be proposed and converted from office buildings.

In this scenario, everyone should benefit: Renters benefit from supply being relatively equal to demand, so prices stay where they are or go down and developers benefit from the decently steady stream of renters, especially as Calgary continues to attract newcomers from other provinces and countries. Meanwhile condo buyers should still see some new construction that should supply the smaller demand that is there without developers over-building the market and sinking condo prices. Investment condo buyers should be able to be modestly successful but not do well enough to start a condo construction boom fed by investors.

I really see Calgary being in a bit of a Goldilocks zone for multi-family construction, steady development of all types should continue.

When I grew up in Vancouver, people would tell you condos are bad investment and only thing worth buying is land. Condos obviously became super popular primarily because a SFH became so expensive. Condos will never be popular as long as a single family home is only 2-3x the cost and relatively affordable. We saw it briefly in Calgary when condos shot up in value in 2013/2014 because the economy was doing well and real estate went up so people turned to condos for what they can afford.

Calgary is in a good state in that we are building at a good pace, even with historic population growth. That prevents land from becoming too expensive, which essentially prevents housing from ever being affordable. Even with stagnating growth (population and housing prices) in Vancouver and Toronto, developers simply stop building and in a few years we're in a supply constraint again. So prices never meaningfully fall. That's why even a few years of bad housing policy is very hard to reverse.
 
I would love to see office to residential conversions along 17th Ave. So many empty and struggling office buildings that would be great conversion candidates for condos or boutique hotels.

Some candidates below.

1763673429586.png

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1763673633834.png


1763673700554.png
 
Maybe this will save people from looking every address on this list up...

622 5 Ave S.W.
Small but should be a quick and easy project.
1763677134659.png


510 5 Street S.W.
Right beside the Dorian and not small. We'll see if they keep the brick.
1763675994756.png


441 5 Ave S.W.
A building I've been by many times and it left no impression on me at all.
1763676074891.png


839 5 Ave S.W. and 840 6 Ave S.W.
This one could end up looking pretty interesting.
1763676304444.png


110 12 Ave S.W.
We've known about Transalta's old HQ for a while.

640 12 Ave S.W.
Small but if done well could be a fun one.
1763676415762.png


708 11 Ave S.W.
We knew about this one, it shared the alley with Noble.

640 5 Ave S.W.
This is the one that person's husband worked in. The largest of this set, I imagine they'll try to keep a similar look.
1763676615918.png


149 5 Ave S.E.
Intriguing little building. The City needs to do something with the old Fire Hall and CBE needs to do something with their old HQ.
1763676739176.png


Here's the list.
NameAddressSquare feet convertedNew HomesDeveloper
The HAT @ 5 Ave622 5 Ave S.W.42,00032Cidex Group of Companies
510 5th510 5 Street S.W.112,000128Bluevale Capital Group
441 Fifth441 5 Ave S.W.78,00063Bluevale Capital Group
Atrium I & II839 5 Ave S.W. 840 6 Ave S.W.209,000180Astra Group & Peoplefirst Developments
Transalta110 12 Ave S.W.133,000153Crestpoint Real Estate Investments
Epique House640 12 Ave S.W.35,00035Alston Properties
Joffre Place708 11 Ave S.W.100,000119Alston Properties
640 Fifth640 5 Ave S.W.220,000262Kanas Corporation
Wicked Hostel/Le Rocc149 5 Ave S.E.18,000Bryan Mar & Axis Projects
Total:947,000972
 

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