General Construction Updates

[Shaka]

The area has a weird feel for sure. The far western portion of the mall is really busy, with the food court seemingly busy all day long. Travel west down the mall, and it gets deader by the foot. I think if they were able to get rid of Sears and build say 4 decent sized buildings (2 x 12 floors, and 2 x 18 floors) The rest of the mall would take off. I mean it would be a fantastic place to live. Right beside SAIT, an LRT station a grocery store and a Home Depot.

I wonder if Home Depot ever considered moving across the street into the old Sears location? It seems like it would be a much more conducive to a larger home improvement store than where they currently are, which is always busy and smaller than most of their stores.

It's definitely a strangely managed mall.

 

[Albertasaurus]

North Hill Mall is weird - in the time I've lived in the area the mall actually seems to have filled up, with not that many vacancies, although that furniture place where Sears used to be always sems dead. They seem to have more independent retailers and less chains than bigger malls like Chinook or Market. The two existing condo buildings have a lot of seniors, and that has created a bit of synergy with some of the medical establishments in the mall. Parking is also a colossal headache there, especially the area around Shoppers.

I agree that a few residential buildings to replace the Sears would help the area take off. But hopefully something much more pedestrian friendly than that godawful Northland Mall redevelopment.

 

[trtcttc]

At the rate things are going with North Hill, I wonder if it's a place to do a mix of market and affordable housing? Use some money from affordable housing grants, some money from the city, and some money from a developer, and if we're lucky some money from the province. There's also Suncor who is supposed to be on the hook for part of this.

Suncor is on the hook for remediation and for the whole amount. The primary reason it's taken so long is that the soil regulations have changed a lot in the last 20 years, so the level of remediation required has drastically increased, which is good thing for human health but will just take longer.

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Suncor is on the hook for remediation and for the whole amount. The primary reason it's taken so long is that the soil regulations have changed a lot in the last 20 years, so the level of remediation required has drastically increased, which is good thing for human health but will just take longer.

What do you have to do? To me, you just take the soil away to be remediated and bring in some new soil. Obviously it is more complicated but yeah.

 

[trtcttc]

North Hill Mall is weird - in the time I've lived in the area the mall actually seems to have filled up, with not that many vacancies, although that furniture place where Sears used to be always sems dead. They seem to have more independent retailers and less chains than bigger malls like Chinook or Market. The two existing condo buildings have a lot of seniors, and that has created a bit of synergy with some of the medical establishments in the mall. Parking is also a colossal headache there, especially the area around Shoppers.

I agree that a few residential buildings to replace the Sears would help the area take off. But hopefully something much more pedestrian friendly than that godawful Northland Mall redevelopment.

I'm also in the area and it's a weird mall in that I never want to go there but things just seem to be there. There's Safeway, Winners, Dollarama, Shoppers, PetValu; AHS has a blood test location, there's a gym in the basement and the library next door. Also the community recycling bins int he parking lot.

I'd imagine any redevelopment would be at scale, including removing or significantly renovating the existing mall. In a fantasy world, a redevelopment between North Hill and the HomeDepot with an urban park bridge over 16th would be incredible. And if the area can be pedestrian oriented with SAIT/LRT nearby like the Brentwood development in Vancouver.

 

[trtcttc]

What do you have to do? To me, you just take the soil away to be remediated and bring in some new soil. Obviously it is more complicated but yeah.

it's not the soil right there, it's seeped under people's houses south of the mall. I'm no expert on this topic but the at least the consultants they've retained said this is how much work is required. Up to 15 years.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/sears-and-suncor-responsible-for-costs-to-clean-up-decades-old-gas-leak-will-take-15-years-to-clean-up-1.5465143

https://www.suncor.com/en-ca/suncor-updates

 

[DiscoStu]

I'm also in the area and it's a weird mall in that I never want to go there but things just seem to be there.

Ha, I hear ya. I loath going there because of the sketchy parking situation, but it's probably the mall that I end up going to the most. As fuddy-duddy as it is, it kind of has everything.

 

[Roaring Flames]

Personally my wish would be for SAIT to get that end of the mall with the dead Sears and the surrounding parking lots. That would be a nearly 25% increase to their developable land. Of course that's after the remediation of the land.

 

[haltcatchfire]

Personally my wish would be for SAIT to get that end of the mall with the dead Sears and the surrounding parking lots. That would be a nearly 25% increase to their developable land. Of course that's after the remediation of the land.

That's a really intriguing idea. A few levels of SAIT classrooms and other learning spaces etc, with tons of rental towers for students overhead would be awesome. Perhaps long term they could build an enclosed pedway over 14th to link both sides.

 

[John Wick]

North Hill mall & Lions Park station are frustrating as there's so much potential.
The City is planning to do some upgrades around the station and I believe currently seeking input.
The impression I get though is that nothing beyond adding a hard fence along the south side of 14th Ave (at the station) and maybe widening the sidewalks on the north side of 14th will happen.

 

[Sambo]

Just got a notice from my community opposing an expansion to the Edworthy North parking lots. The city are planning to expand the lot by the new Shaganappi Pump Station and pave the small lot at the end of 37th street. Never a fan of new parking lots, but Edworthy is super popular and does kind of need it. DMap

Adding another parking lot in front of those condos view to the river is a tough pill. Are they going to make it paid parking? I see mention of a pay station. That might help reduce the AHS staff and downtown commuters filling it up.

 

[Mountain Man]

The extended parking won't really block any views, will just fill in unused green space around the current lot and just to the south of the Shaganappi Pump Station. It does look like it will be pay parking, I do wonder the effect of that on the cycle commuters. The City advertises Edworthy as a free park and bike lot and on nice days in the summer the lot can be completely full by 9AM. I'm guessing the parking fees are to help offset the cost of paving and expanding the lot.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I'll call this one 'Imagine North Hill' There'd be less parking lot, but the gist would be some towers on the east end of the parcel.

 

[CBBarnett]

These larger-scale infill projects are probably our next big planning thing to figure out. With the city getting closer to 2 million and dozens of kilometres from end-to-end, the demand of being so central will keep increasing.

But each of these larger redevelopment sites have complicated (or dumb) issues that need to be sorted. North Hill has this gas station spill and legal battles, Anderson has our anti-development park-and-ride philosophy, others face all sorts of issues. There's lots of larger-scale infrastructure that will be required beyond your typical infill too.

But it is solvable - Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have extensive redevelopment at scale on formerly heavy industrial sites, many sites must have been far more contaminated and complex than anything we have. Just needs the right combo of market pressure and a willingness to solve some of these sticky/silly issues.

Seeing how the infill market has matured in the past 20 years is a local example of solving some of these seemingly intractable barriers. We can do it!

 

[CalgaryTiger]

These larger-scale infill projects are probably our next big planning thing to figure out. With the city getting closer to 2 million and dozens of kilometres from end-to-end, the demand of being so central will keep increasing.

But each of these larger redevelopment sites have complicated (or dumb) issues that need to be sorted. North Hill has this gas station spill and legal battles, Anderson has our anti-development park-and-ride philosophy, others face all sorts of issues. There's lots of larger-scale infrastructure that will be required beyond your typical infill too.

But it is solvable - Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal have extensive redevelopment at scale on formerly heavy industrial sites, many sites must have been far more contaminated and complex than anything we have. Just needs the right combo of market pressure and a willingness to solve some of these sticky/silly issues.

Seeing how the infill market has matured in the past 20 years is a local example of solving some of these seemingly intractable barriers. We can do it!

The city is properly studying Anderson, park-and-rides will take time as they're budget dependent. I'll know we're taking large scale inner-city development on contaminated land seriously when the area around Cowboys Park-ing lot is seriously looked at. The Chevy dealership is now gone, the city is taking over the Greyhound, all that's left is Mercedes and Renfrew Chrysler. probably by the time they're done cleaning North Hill Mall up (15 years after 2020 so 2035, only 10 years from now) maybe the city will consider looking at it.