Calgcouver
Active Member
Yay density but what a piece of absolute dogshit. StreetSide you have better suburban Surrey projects you could have copy and pasted here
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General Construction Updates
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
gsunnyg
Senior Member
There once was a time when Calgary's quality of developments were neck and neck with Toronto's. Nowadays, we'd be lucky to get a top end midrise or tower that can compete with the average Surrey midrise or tower. It's like developers are just pulling these unbuilt old designs from 2008 and using them. I'm guessing the weak profit generated per sq.ft since the 2014 oil crash plays a big role in the amount of mediocre designs coming out.
MissingMiddle
Active Member
I feel like the bar to be competitive on the 'niceness' of a development is lower in Calgary for two reasons: Toronto and Vancouver have a much higher volume of urban development, and there's a ceiling in Calgary for how much they can charge before it makes more sense for a buyer/renter to invest in detached SFH.
I would love to see Calgary do better on both accounts.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
I think there is little pushback on a weak design here as well. People are more used to cookie cutter in Calgary I think.
Disraeli
Active Member
Alot of suburban cookie cutter crap has been built in urban Van and Toronto over the last 20years as well though. Largely unavoidable when every person with some land fancies themselves a developer. But the comparative volume of good design is definitely far ahead of Calgary.
artvandelay
Active Member
Greater Vancouver is certainly a step ahead when it comes to urban design and overall quality of new development. However there is a ton of awful development in the GTA and even many of the higher quality projects (from an architectural standpoint) have extremely poor urban design. I don't think Toronto is a place we want to emulate on that front.
gsunnyg
Senior Member
Agreed. There are a few things that I dislike about Vancouver in comparison to Calgary, but damn, their recent developments and specifically the TOD's are just epic! I think our city council needs to take a school trip out to Van and comeback and realize the junk them and previous councils have been approving. Somewhere, I believe our city, particularly our politicians, just never got out of that small town mindset even as our population grew. The disparity in the number of suburbia looking projects being proposed relative to the number of urban-focused projects is almost criminal.
G888
New Member
Guys, I’m new to this site. Do you think the rents are there to build a 10 storey concrete building in belt line yet for a private developer with his own money? I see all the institutional capital building on concrete but they are just diversifying their portfolios for the most part so aren’t so concerned about good returns, they just want to park their money.
Disraeli
Active Member
Council does not approve developments and administration has very little input into design. The biggest factor imo is that few cities in the world have a housing market capable of supporting massive, high-end, $500+ million plus TOD developments. Vancouver is one of them, Calgary is not. All things considered, Calgary has fairly progressive planning policies and we have been benefiting from them for the last decade or so. But material choice and quality of design is primarily a question of economics for the developer, not public policy. I can't help but think that using Vancouver as a measuring stick all the time tends to distort our expectations in this City. I'm guilty of this as well and I get frustrated at the slow pace of re-development or from shitty builds that would never happen in Vancouver. But again, it's important to remember that the development market is just a different beast out there.
darwink
Senior Member
Hey!
That is very unlikely to happen in this day and age. Why? Specialization and core competencies. Why would a developer lock up all their capital in one project, versus using that same money over 10 years to do 5 projects? Why would a company that is great at choosing a site and making a plan be simultaneously great at assembling a 50 year capital budget, and be simultaneously great at marketing, tenant management and maintenance?
Same reasons why investors don’t build typically.
Now don’t get me wrong: there are long term symbiotic relationships between developers and investors that might make it look from the outside that they are operating as single entities, but even those relationships are subject to competition.
Why? Because finding market based transfer pricing is really hard if a company is all mashed together, and when a company is all mashed together, there is a huge risk if one side goes bad that the test gets taken down. When you dont have market based pricing, it is difficult to price risk. Which can lead firms to taking risky decisions.
In recent memory Torode was set back 15 years due to an interwoven corporate structure. Strategic’s restructuring seemed to take longer due to similar issues (given how it has emerged was close to Strategic’s petition to the court a long ways back before bankruptcy, but the court found it couldn’t be done without the court process due to structure).
gsunnyg
Senior Member
I’d disagree here with the market aspect. Even if we had a million dollar avg home price in Calgary, I don’t think it would change our TOD designs or layout of all these suburban looking developments. From what I see, it really comes down to the culture of our city. Council needs to implement policies that better enforce any guidebooks and master plans. If more developments were pedestrian focused, then I think the use of materials would be less of a concern. ASI’s “Fifth” is a good example of this, where it’s not the prettiest midrise out there but does an excellent job at integrating the pedestrian realm of 17th.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
Jaipur Bridge reconstruction, along with prep for the new lagoon access and urban beach.
Bow to Bluffs Park sorta shaping up…the playground is looking good.
Bow to Bluffs Park sorta shaping up…the playground is looking good.
YourBoy007
Active Member
Walked by last night. They've started gutting it.
Beltline_B
Senior Member
Was driving down Centre Street N and noticed there is some construction activity on the west side at about 42nd Ave.. I didn’t get a good look but it’s well under construction.
Looks like a small retail strip. Designed by Gravity. so far it appears to have two tenants: A cannabis shop and a liquor store. lol.
No parking in front.
No parking in front.