5Th & Macleod | ?m | 50s | Great Gulf | Henriquez Partners

JonnyCanuck said:
Unfortunately high rise condos don't appear to be a good investment right now. New home buyers don't want to live in them, preferring single family or detached. Investors don't want to buy and try to rent them out as there is way too much competition from purpose rental buildings which is only going to increase. Now with the city focused on converting some office to residential that will only give further pause to condo developers (like Great Gulf/Cressey/Harvard/Qualex/Anthem) who were planning to build new ones.
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Hadn't thought about that last sentence. Totally right though. Well, at least our last/ongoing boom furnished us with a f*ckload of nice looking towers.
 
I think condo sales will come back. Problem is, much like we did with the office market, we massively overbuilt the condo market. After a few years with minimal new projects and a recovering economy, the condo market should come back. Especially if we can really transition to more of a tech hub!
 
Mountain Man said:
I think condo sales will come back. Problem is, much like we did with the office market, we massively overbuilt the condo market. After a few years with minimal new projects and a recovering economy, the condo market should come back. Especially if we can really transition to more of a tech hub!
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What fueled the condo boom in past years was investors. Most new builds were (and some still are) anywhere from 40-60% owner occupied. The rest of the building is rented, AirBnB or vacant units looking for a tenant. I suppose if you were an investor and your condo asset was appreciating in value, you could endure periods where it was not generating rent revenue. Also, there was no competition from purpose built rental buildings that are offering suite finishes and amenities comparable to what you would find in a condo building.
What is different now is:
1. There are thousands of new rental units on the market with more coming.
2. Condo values have depreciated greatly. Case in point is my own. I have a 10 year old, 2 BD/2 bath unit in a prime downtown location. If I were to sell it today, I would lose $170,000 from what I paid for it.
 
I agree with your points. One thing to keep in mind is immigration boom and international students are going to be coming back hopefully at the end of this year or next. Its nowhere near enough to absorb the vacancy in rentals/condos, but it will help. Prolonged $65-75 oil probably wont hurt either. Its rough sailing right now, but there is calmer waters ahead
 
Well, I think it is now safe to say this one is officially dead. Hopefully a more interested developer picks up the site and moves forward with the project. Too bad Great Gulf didn't make a better attempt at Calgary, but I am sure they have their reasons for not doing so:
renx.ca

An entire city block, 2.83 acres, for sale in downtown Calgary

An entire city block - 2.83 acres - is for sale in the heart of downtown Calgary.
renx.ca renx.ca
 
The article claims a lot of developers are interested. While an entire block gives developers a lot of freedom and being so close to east village and the river is great, being across the street from the DIC with its current issues may be a challenge. It looks like Great Gulf is taking a $16 million loss from the price they bought the land for back in 2015 if it sells at the list price.
 
Speaking strictly from a downtown office worker who visits the EV. This and CBE block have potential but this section of downtown is forgotten about. It's not EV, it's not close to the river but also flanked by the 4th and 5th Ave car sewers. You could maybe work with BVC on a residence of some kind? That's only one building though...
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Speaking strictly from a downtown office worker who visits the EV. This and CBE block have potential but this section of downtown is forgotten about. It's not EV, it's not close to the river but also flanked by the 4th and 5th Ave car sewers. You could maybe work with BVC on a residence of some kind? That's only one building though...
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In a perfect world, this and the CBE site would be perfect for a downtown university campus with a lot of integrated student housing and amenities.
 
Calgcouver said:
In a perfect world, this and the CBE site would be perfect for a downtown university campus with a lot of integrated student housing and amenities.
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Making 3rd St. SE and carless green street would at least give the area a destination. With relatively short buildings to the west sun blocking wouldn't be an issue. Problem is it dead ends at Platform.
 
platform was the most indefensible decision in a sea of indefensible decisions.

all this fuss over downtown vitality but eliminating the one way streets that do more than anything to make the cbe a hostile place is some kind of sacred cow, while actually doing it is would cost practically nothing.

change my mind
 
1875 said:
platform was the most indefensible decision in a sea of indefensible decisions.

all this fuss over downtown vitality but eliminating the one way streets that do more than anything to make the cbe a hostile place is some kind of sacred cow, while actually doing it is would cost practically nothing.

change my mind
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Just like when they made Fifth Ave a two-way and it turned into a pedestrian paradise? 😂

Two-way traffic is marginally better for the viability of street-front retail, but it doesn't really have an impact on the hostility of the public realm when the root causes relate to the fundamental design of the roads: excessive lane width (especially wide outside lanes), restrictions against on-street parking during the day, lack of sidewalk width, scarcity of street trees, lack of bike facilities etc.
 
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