UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
I'm quite content with the exorbitant number of residential towers and low/midrises we have underway 
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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
I'm totally happy with all the res towers going up, and would welcome more and more. I should clarify that I don't mind more office, but would like it to be spread out more. We have so much in the CBD already.I'm quite content with the exorbitant number of residential towers and low/midrises we have underway
JesseLikesCities
Active Member
I'd really like to see some commercial/residential high rises outside the core. I had a total boner for that Currie project but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I'd like Calgary to have more nodes of high rises like metro Vancouver.
maestro
Senior Member
This post is just ripe with errors (vacancy peaking at 30% in 2009) and a misunderstanding of what led to the huge swings in absorption. Companies were stockpiling space. This was apparent in 2008/2009 when the market was flooded with sublet space and also in 2015. Those vacancy figures in 2009/2015 were more realistic in relation to Calgary's space needs than when vacancy was hovering around 2%. I don't see a return to that era. 2009 was a blip compared to real estate expenditures companies are facing now. 2 years to absorb 12 plus million square feet also didn't happen during the best of times back then.
Beltline_B
Senior Member
It’s slowly moving in that direction. Developments around Brentwood and Banff Trail are moving that trend along.
Yeah, not sure what happened with Currie except that it's probably market related. The residential portion was to be condos, and that's a slow market at the moment.
I don't know if we'll ever see the kind of nodes like Burnaby or North York, or say Chatswood or Paramatta in Sydney, but we do have some decent nodes developing. Brentwood, Chinook and Westbrook all seem like the best chance of becoming decent sized busy nodes.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
Honestly, I know it hasn't even started redeveloping yet, but I see Crowfoot Crossing as one day being a pretty good mid/high-density TOD... even just because of its sheer size.
darwink
Senior Member
All depends on if owners decide to write down their assets and rent them for less for the long term. The former head of the Chamber has remarked "tech doesn't want office buildings, they want converted lofts". Well, I find that not true. They want well designed spaces with high permeability. This might mean putting in way more nice in office stair cases between floors. Even creating more double height spaces out of existing product. But this has been done before - CPR's modifications to Gulf Canada Square were quite extensive to build their master control space. Many law firms I have been in have nice stair cases to speed up movement between their floors.According to the economic predictions CED is making, this could be our last downtown business skyscraper until the 2030's
Fortunately Calgary's office buildings with large floor plates are for the most part way more flexible to do this kind of work than in other cities. Except for First Canadian Centre's weird triangle of course.
You hit the nail on the head. One of the things that Strategic is already doing with some of their buildings, is making them into more of an open concept loft styled space. It's much easier to renovate and re-purpose office space to a different style of office space than it is to convert to residential.
Alex_YYC
Senior Member
There are a lot of options that can be done with office space these days, I think people would be amazed to see what you can do with the regular old office space turning it into something really cool.
Calgary is perfectly poised for that kind of action.
Calgary is perfectly poised for that kind of action.
JesseLikesCities
Active Member
I've often thought that too but they would have to demo some buildings there to make room no? It's not like a very old area too.
darwink
Senior Member
Of course, but it isn't like these are any more than pad and frame developments. The first step though is to build a true street grid type thing, then start filling in parking lot bits with parts like the "main street" in aspen landing, with a reasonable amount of street parking, circulation space, and more parking tucked away if needed for them or their neighbours. then as development creeps forward eventually the large buildings either are replaced or can survive in the new environment.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.0396...k-no-pi-0-ya334.604-ro-0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656
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JesseLikesCities
Active Member
In that case Crowfoot would be an awesome location for a few highrises as it's in a corner of the city and up high so it would really spread the city out so to speak from a visual perspective. With the LRT and Stoney right there it has excellent location.
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
I have very little faith in municipal governments or developers to convert suburban strip malls/big box stores into actual urban neighborhoods. I've never seen this successfully accomplished, though I'd be interested if anyone has some good examples.
As far as developing high-rise neighborhoods in Calgary's suburbs, I would say the area around Chinook LRT station has the most potential. It already has an urban street grid. It's non-residential, so no need to worry about NIMBYs, and it has a lot of pedestrian traffic between the station and the mall.
As far as developing high-rise neighborhoods in Calgary's suburbs, I would say the area around Chinook LRT station has the most potential. It already has an urban street grid. It's non-residential, so no need to worry about NIMBYs, and it has a lot of pedestrian traffic between the station and the mall.
darwink
Senior Member
No one has ones old enough for the most part. We can't be too rushed with things. It will be a 50 year process or more.