UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
The new fitness area is in at the main stairs of the McHugh Bluffs…
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General Construction Updates
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
Nimbus
Active Member
Been up and running for a few weeks now. Here I was thinking they finally got it open in time for winter, and winter has decided to wait a bit.
boreal96
New Member
Oh that's amazing, I didn't know they were building a fitness park. There were no fitness park in the entire downtown and surrounding areas until then if I'm not mistaken. When I was living downtown, I had to go to the Uofc's Research Park to train.
I'm a huge fan of fitness park, they are pretty low cost to build and maintain. And they get people outside to gather and improve their health, from young kids to seniors
I'm a huge fan of fitness park, they are pretty low cost to build and maintain. And they get people outside to gather and improve their health, from young kids to seniors
Thrillhou
Active Member
That's got to be the most no brainer fitness park in the city. They could easily build a matching one at the top of the stairs in Crescent Heights Park. The lunch time stairs crowd would be more than enough to justify it.
Nimbus
Active Member
Crescent Heights residents up there would probably complain and argue against a fitness park up there. It's where fun goes to die.
Nimbus
Active Member
Now that I think about it there were Crescent Heights residents near the stairs that were complaining about this park going in when it was first proposed. They didn't want "stinky" people running up and down the stairs and more congestion. Despite the fact that the place was/is already packed. They shot down any proposal that had some equipment up top too.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
I agree. There are proposals for several more I believe. That area was an empty pit about a foot deep for at least a year and a half. Very happy to see it, it will get lots of use.Oh that's amazing, I didn't know they were building a fitness park. There were no fitness park in the entire downtown and surrounding areas until then if I'm not mistaken. When I was living downtown, I had to go to the Uofc's Research Park to train.
I'm a huge fan of fitness park, they are pretty low cost to build and maintain. And they get people outside to gather and improve their health, from young kids to seniors
AtlanticAvenue
Active Member
rdaner
Senior Member
Great! I just wanted to add that the city centres in Toronto have an interesting development history. Although conceived in the 1970s as centres of office employment to relieve pressure on the downtown, they didn't really attract a lot of office development. Starting in the 1980s they began to get cultural and government functions and some housing. About half were built around regional shopping centres. The real boom came when rapid transit was extended to them from downtown and the zoning was changed to allow for highrise residential development. That started in the mid 1990s and has been increasing ever since to the point were Mississauga City Centre now has 60,000 residents which makes it a larger centre of population than most NA traditional downtowns. This number is expected to double over the next decade.
The reason I mention this is that now there are a lot of colleges opening up and entertainment being located there that gives residents of the surrounding suburban areas access to far more services at a closer distance without having to commute all the way downtown which is ofputting for many people. The final thing is that now that relaxed zoning is coming into effect in most Canadian cities the roads between the traditional downtown and the suburban centres are now being built up with midrises. I think that this model of city building that is seen so strongly now in Toronto and Vancouver is going to become apparent in other locations. Look carefully at regional shopping malls that have an lrt station.
I feel like proximity to the LRT has not helped big developments here.
West District, University District, Currie Barracks and Trinity Hills are all rapidly filling out despite not being near the train (although Currie and maybe UD have BRT). Marda Loop (BRT on the periphery) and Kensington/19th are gradually building up. But meanwhile the area around Westbrook LRT has reverted to prairie and Anderson is still a parking lot. And Crown Park is very low-rise given its proximity to Shaganappi Point. I am optimistic about Brentwood though.
West District, University District, Currie Barracks and Trinity Hills are all rapidly filling out despite not being near the train (although Currie and maybe UD have BRT). Marda Loop (BRT on the periphery) and Kensington/19th are gradually building up. But meanwhile the area around Westbrook LRT has reverted to prairie and Anderson is still a parking lot. And Crown Park is very low-rise given its proximity to Shaganappi Point. I am optimistic about Brentwood though.
So far development and planning around LRT stations has been abysmal, but I feel like we are finally ready to turn the corner. Sunnyside, though not a master planned TOD is evolving nicely, and Brentwood is getting there. If Brentwood Commons gets built, it'll be a substantial TOD/Transit adjacent area.
The biggest reason for my optimism is this post from another thread.
DougB
Senior Member
Transit alone isn't sufficient draw for large redevelopments. I haven't been to Toronto since 2000, but memories of places like Yonge and Eglinton, NYCC are not favorable. Maybe in an opressively expensive and congested city, transist connections alone can be a selling point, but in Calgary developments would need additional attractions such as views, parks, connections to pathway network.
darwink
Senior Member
Primary land owners who want to build and work on land economics to accomplish that versus those that see returns at TODs elsewhere and seek to replicate.
In the Vancouver region prezoned density you can be at $200+ per square foot buildable alone. On unremarkable suburban sites. Sites where there is an expectation for more to be allowed by Council with urban locations have gone for triple that.
In comparison the Red’s Diner site on 4th Street for the 4th St lofts which sold for $4.5 million if my memory isn’t failing me, was about $20 per square foot after bonusing, $30 ish before.
Even if my memory is off by quite a bit you can see the gap at play between a desirable Beltline site in Calgary and a run of the mill development site in Vancouver. The land cost gap between a TOD and a Beltline site, you’re likely at $10 a square foot? While not nothing it isn’t anything like the $100 to $400 gap per square foot in Vancouver which drives TOD. Add to that that for a long while buildable density in Vancouver wasn’t available at developable price due to adding city ‘voluntary’ community amenity contributions over and above those higher land prices, adding up to another $150 a square foot (subject to often protracted negotiations), where Surrey is $40 flat rate without negotiations.
High real estate prices enable a multitude of development regulation sins. The delivered price of a development in Calgary can be lower than the land plus tax price in Vancouver.
outoftheice
Active Member
Victoria Park LRT station reopened today. Looks like they still have a bunch of work to do on the stations themselves as well as the streetscaping surrounding them but I think it'll be a nice improvement to the old station design and hopefully encourage more people to use the train to go explore the eastern half of 17th Ave.
