The Forge | 16.5m | 6s | Kanas | Gibbs Gage

Santa delivered a couple of pallets of brick:
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The Familia said:
I think University district will blow east Village out of the water with a few more completed projects. It’s crazy how quickly and successful UD has become while EV languishes after a hot start. It’s disappointment to see.
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EV will build out eventually, but with its challenges, the build out will take a bit longer.

If U/D was next to Brentwood or some other LRT station, I would be about as perfect an example of a mast planned urban development as you could get. Even as it is, it's still a great result.
 
The Familia said:
I think University district will blow east Village out of the water with a few more completed projects. It’s crazy how quickly and successful UD has become while EV languishes after a hot start. It’s disappointment to see.
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The post 2014 recession really took the wind out of the sails of East Village, and COVID and work from home likely delayed things even further. I think University District's location made it more recession resistant since it targets retirees, students/university workers, and health care workers. It's also a lot lower density (townhomes and mid-rises vs high rises) which is a huge advantage for getting projects off the ground, especially in today's environment. I'm expecting the whole of UD to build out before EV does at this point, which I don't think any of us would have expected a decade ago when UD was first approved.
 
NWUrbanism said:
The post 2014 recession really took the wind out of the sails of East Village, and COVID and work from home likely delayed things even further. I think University District's location made it more recession resistant since it targets retirees, students/university workers, and health care workers. It's also a lot lower density (townhomes and mid-rises vs high rises) which is a huge advantage for getting projects off the ground, especially in today's environment. I'm expecting the whole of UD to build out before EV does at this point, which I don't think any of us would have expected a decade ago when UD was first approved.
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The other thing not often mentioned is that University District really has no competitor. Put simply, it's the only high-quality walkable neighbourhood in the NW, excluding Sunnyside. Perhaps arguably, it's probably the most walkable neighbourhood outside of the immediate inner city. All brand new development, with modern amenities and designs, and none of the baggage that comes with history, community biases, local attitudes around change etc.

In this sense, it's not surprising at all it's been successful. The most surprising thing is how it didn't happen earlier. How many decades does 40,000 students + 25,000 jobs have to be clustered within a few kilometres of each other, before someone figured out to build sidewalks and apartments next to them?

East Village is not the same in this way - there's many inner city areas that support tower density, with good river and downtown access, and are highly walkable - most obviously the Beltline. EV is an attractive place for sure, but so are others that are similar. Thanks to artificially small boundaries, there's only 3-5 parcels to go, and therefore EV is completely dependent on 3- 5 project business models to finish. Beltline has dozens of sites and potential projects. If a few stagnate, there are others that have a different unique business cases and project economics that may get started on their projects. From a neighbourhood level, this is why the Beltline doesn't appear to "slow down" - the sub-market is broad enough it's diversified away from being dependent on the success of a few sites alone.
 
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