Kit at Kensington | 50m | 15s | Jemm Properties | LOLA

[gsunnyg]

I don't think we've seen this rendering here. It gives a good idea of the scale of this development relative to its surrounding area.

I personally like the size. It doesn't seem out of place but is still prominent. However, I'm still bummed they didn't put retail along 3rd Ave, especially since it's a busy pedestrian street that is right at the doorsteps of an LRT station.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Hopefully the CA doesn't fight too hard on this. It's bigger than the usual for the area, but there are no adjacent SFHs to complain about shadowing.

 

[haltcatchfire]

Still annoyed by the lack of retail on 3rd Ave. At some point the Safeway lot will get redeveloped and will certainly be retail on both 3rd and 10th.

 

[maestro]

Average looking tower. If it stays as proposed or gets chopped down to the scale of the building next to it than so be it.

 

[MichaelS]

The DP has been submitted:

DMAP

15s I 50m

 

[haltcatchfire]

Who’s the architect on this one?

 

[MichaelS]

Lola, I have updated the thread.

 

[Mountain Man]

Not very often are balcony guardrail pickets a major design feature. Cautiously optimistic...

 

[Calgcouver]

Still annoyed by the lack of retail on 3rd Ave. At some point the Safeway lot will get redeveloped and will certainly be retail on both 3rd and 10th.

One of the things that i have noticed in conversations around mixed-use buildings (retail podium with residential above) on rental projects is that the property management companies that would naturally buy these buildings want it to be either commercial or residential. This is leading to a lot of builders in the suburbs especially wanting to separate single storey retail out from the residential buildings and calling it "horizontal mixed-use". The old Sunnyside Plant store in Bowness is a good example as well as many of Roy-ops sites.

This is because the types of companies that would want to own them in Calgary are staffed up and are used to only managing either residential or commercial, largely because of how segregated these uses have been traditionally through Euclidian zoning in Calgary traditionally. Commercial property managers have built staff and portfolios of commercial properties and residential is vice-versa. So if Boardwalk is looking to buy an apartment building, they don't want to manage a retail podium as well as they don't have a lot of in-house staff to manage that. On the flip side purchasers on the commercial side don't want to manage residential and aren't setup for it.

I would imagine this would make sites like CY33 harder to forward sell to the likes of a Boardwalk, so JEMM probably would prefer to sell it as all residential because the feedback they would have received from the parties they would forward sell this project too would want it to be either or.

This is a problem of the mindsight of the end buyer/property manager and them not wanting to retool there organizations to manage both commercial and residential assets. I would presume that whoever Cidex forward sells to views the retail as a loss leader so they DGAF about renting the retail out in a West Village Towers situation and they just see it as "the City requiring vertical mixed-use" so leave it empty.

It is a part of our entire real estate industry that needs to change to make vertical mixed-use buildings more ubiquitous and palatable to end buyers/managers, just old school ideas that refuse to die and "why change our organization if we don't have to" ideas maintaining over time.

 

[zagox]

One of the things that i have noticed in conversations around mixed-use buildings (retail podium with residential above) on rental projects is that the property management companies that would naturally buy these buildings want it to be either commercial or residential. This is leading to a lot of builders in the suburbs especially wanting to separate single storey retail out from the residential buildings and calling it "horizontal mixed-use". The old Sunnyside Plant store in Bowness is a good example as well as many of Roy-ops sites.

This is because the types of companies that would want to own them in Calgary are staffed up and are used to only managing either residential or commercial, largely because of how segregated these uses have been traditionally through Euclidian zoning in Calgary traditionally. Commercial property managers have built staff and portfolios of commercial properties and residential is vice-versa. So if Boardwalk is looking to buy an apartment building, they don't want to manage a retail podium as well as they don't have a lot of in-house staff to manage that. On the flip side purchasers on the commercial side don't want to manage residential and aren't setup for it.

I would imagine this would make sites like CY33 harder to forward sell to the likes of a Boardwalk, so JEMM probably would prefer to sell it as all residential because the feedback they would have received from the parties they would forward sell this project too would want it to be either or.

This is a problem of the mindsight of the end buyer/property manager and them not wanting to retool there organizations to manage both commercial and residential assets. I would presume that whoever Cidex forward sells to views the retail as a loss leader so they DGAF about renting the retail out in a West Village Towers situation and they just see it as "the City requiring vertical mixed-use" so leave it empty.

It is a part of our entire real estate industry that needs to change to make vertical mixed-use buildings more ubiquitous and palatable to end buyers/managers, just old school ideas that refuse to die and "why change our organization if we don't have to" ideas maintaining over time.

I’m not too fussed about lack of retail in this building - it’s a pretty small footprint at ground level, and 9A isn’t going to be an attractive high street with the LRT fence on one side.

However, totally makes sense that rental buildings are harder to sell on as mixed use. Condo developers can sell retail CRUs to retail investors and residential units to residential investors - harder to do for purpose built rental.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

I've spoken to a developer about this; I found it very interesting that even along a main street they wanted minimal commercial rental space and instead preferred residential rentals.

 

[maestro]

A developer wants to keep things as simple as possible and commercial retail space is a complication. It's either sold or leased independent of the rental units.

Multiple CRUs in condo buildings are usually not part of the residential strata. They can be their own commercial strata or not part of any strata. There's not much of a difference between a condo building or a rental building and the retail space

 

[adamyyc]

Looks good. Seems like the balconies are less of a hot mess than they were previously.

 

[haltcatchfire]

A developer wants to keep things as simple as possible and commercial retail space is a complication. It's either sold or leased independent of the rental units.

Multiple CRUs in condo buildings are usually not part of the residential strata. They can be their own commercial strata or not part of any strata. There's not much of a difference between a condo building or a rental building and the retail space

The city still needs to push back on this and not allow developers to dictate that they won’t because not doing it is simpler for them.

 

[MissingMiddle]

The city still needs to push back on this and not allow developers to dictate that they won’t because not doing it is simpler for them.

Market opportunity for a retail management company? Residential owner hires retail property manager, I imagine most of the work could be done remotely. Lease cycles are usually 5-10 years, so it would be relatively easy to manage a large number of buildings.