The Shift | 113.08m | 38s | Edgar | MCM Partnership

[ForestedImagination]

Is there a way for admins to update the project map as well? Dozens of projects missing from it now. Would be sweet to have things on there and not just threads.

Second that. Lots projects missing. For example the pair of towers on 124th St by Casia Developments (which has a demolition permit approved), both of Westrich's Windsor projects (both are under construction), Westrich's Ice Tower, and NorQuest College's new learning center on 102nd Ave etc...

 

[Kosy123]

30% in the year of our Lord 2026, are you deadass?? Meanwhile on this forum, we thought the sky was falling when we were at the mid-twenties during the height of COVID

To be fair, Calgary's downtown is a fricking anomaly in North America with more than 41 million sq ft available, which is insane for a city of 1.6 million people. For comparison, Vancouver has 27 million sq ft, Ottawa with 18 million, Dallas has 27 million, Houston with 42 million sq ft and Montreal at 47 million sq ft in their downtown core.

But that's 30% with several of their major office conversions already finished or underway. They keep getting hit with a ton of mergers that keep killing their office market.

The bleeding has stopped here and we're seeing some recovery, but I don't think the bleeding down south is stopping anytime soon yet.

 

[yeggator]

Right, those Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips layoffs are brutal.

 

[David A]

It's time to drop the 'second-city' complex. Comparing ourselves to Calgary is a sign of low self-esteem that ignores the actual momentum. People are voting with their feet: in 2025, Edmonton’s growth rate (3.1%) edged out Calgary’s (2.9%), and we had over 21,000 housing starts.

Calgary is great at marketing, but they’re currently hiding a 30%+ office vacancy rate. Edmonton has stabilized around 19% because we’ve stopped waiting for a corporate miracle and started doing the complex, multi-pronged work. The 'fix' for Downtown isn't a one-size-fits-all band-aid.

Calgary does well when it runs down the competition and pretends to be the only game in town. It isn't. Let’s focus on our own growth and let the results speak for themselves.

I realize there is going to be some comparison and competition especially between similar sized cities in the same province.

However, I also feel the grass is always greener there crowd does need to get their head out of their you know what,. That city has problems too, some of which are not as obvious from a distance.

Although, I don't know if we need still Calgary to run us down anymore when some here do it so well. We do need to have more confidence and focus more on solving problems not comparing ourselves to others.

 

[Mesopotamia]

I feel like Edmontonians need to stop measuring their city against Calgary. Edmonton is never going to be like Calgary as Edmonton is never going to attract the O&G HQs or other HQs like Calgary does. What Edmonton needs to do is focus on its own strengths such as being more of an arts city with a more indie vibe. There’s a reason why people like Montreal more than Toronto. The same can be said about Melbourne being more interesting than Sydney. Montreal and Melbourne don’t try to be like their bigger business-minded cities. They embrace their own unique arts and indie strengths and that has led them in my opinion to being more interesting cities.

 

[David A]

I feel like Edmontonians need to stop measuring their city against Calgary. Edmonton is never going to be like Calgary as Edmonton is never going to attract the O&G HQs or other HQs like Calgary does. What Edmonton needs to do is focus on its own strengths such as being more of an arts city with a more indie vibe. There’s a reason why people like Montreal more than Toronto. The same can be said about Melbourne being more interesting than Sydney. Montreal and Melbourne don’t try to be like their bigger business-minded cities. They embrace their own unique arts and indie strengths and that has led them in my opinion to being more interesting cities.

I feel with both the Montreal/Toronto and Melbourne/Sydney examples are good, but actually Montreal has a good number of decent head offices although not as many as Toronto or as large.

I also agree we are not going to get oil company head offices, but there are growing small businesses in various industries here and even some decent larger home grown companies here now.

On the other hand, Calgary has done well in recent years with developing more culture and some more blue collar industries like distribution. I feel they are not clinging on to the white collar/blue collar city stereotypes that were created in the 1970' s and we shouldn't limit ourselves either.

 

[JNO1]

Sooo.....any renders of this one available yet?

 

[archited]

It seems no one has enough pride in the product to care about releasing any visuals.

 

[NicolBolas]

What you read is the ongoing and repetitive rantings of someone many of us have long since muted, FYI.

I mean realistically, most of it is true. The Calgary skyrise cities isn't full of 6 story wood framed buildings with the only distinction being different coloured cheap siding slapped onto the front.

If we keep doing the same and hope for different results we will just keep getting the same.

 

[Gronk!]

It appears people would rather discuss the ongoing Edmonton vs Calgary dick measuring contest in this thread instead of The Shift.

 

[NicolBolas]

Except that Broadway is very much driven by tourism/destination bach/bachettes, live music and conferences that we simply do not have in any real magnitude comparatively speaking.

Not to say that we cannot create our own drivers and destinations, but it's quite a different world.

We need to focus on infill housing of real significance, ie. 20,000 more people living Downtown and say 5-10k more around Whyte to really drive change and THEN the rest may follow.

We also need to work on corporate expansion here and bring far more private sector workers to the core each and every day to drive retail, restaurant and entertainment.

That's why we need to reinvent ourselves and doing that with Whyte Ave in my mind is a easy path forward.

Jamming another 30k people into these areas, sure will help to some degree but jamming in 30k low effort projects doesn't solve anything.

 

[IanO]

'Jamming'? There's plenty of room/density/capacity and it's in need of far more people there throughout the day; not just on a Friday night.

 

[David A]

'Jamming'? There's plenty of room/density/capacity and it's in need of far more people there throughout the day; not just on a Friday night.

Yes, the large parking lot a block south of Whyte Ave where a residential high rise is being built now is a good example of there being room for more more density.

I am fairly familiar with the area and can also think of three other lots nearby. Likewise, still some good spots close to downtown.

 

[Out of Towner]

You feel "at least a few on council now realize these are the problems"? Its a little late for that don't you think? Also, Edmonton's council is dominated by lefty virtue signalling anti -capitalist who have no idea how to attact corporate business. Edmonton will never ever compete with Calgary in most areas now. There was a time, about 60ish years ago, when Edmonton and Calgary had similar corporate presence. However, Edmonton relied too much on government and did very well - the expansion of government bureaucracy and the growth of the U of A led to thousands of well paid unionized public service jobs. Calgary could not rely as much on these types of employment sectors and therefore put much greater focus into corporate economic growth - this is why the boom and bust has traditionally impacted Calgary more than Edmonton. Its also why they are more conservative because more Calgarians appreciate market driven competition and are less enamoured with publicly funded unions. While Calgary was coming into its own in the 1970s and 80s and hosting the Olympics Edmonton was being led by anti-capitalist types like Jan Reimer. I will always cheer for the Oilers and have a soft spot for Edmonton but the city has become too much left wing, too much socialism, too soft on crime and too much NDP. The well paid government employees know who butters their bread and raving anti-semitic civic embarassments like Heather Macpherson has a job for life here in Edmonton. Calgary has become a much nicer, more urbane and respected city and is a major player nationally and growing player internationally. Edmonton is an afterthought - it's downtown is a civic disgrace and middle class union types with guarenteed pensions who think the UCP is evil will keep voting for the socialist NDP and gap between Calgary and Edmonton will keep growing. It is what it is - the last two civic elections show the two different directions these cities are going - Calgary with more pragmatic common sense leadership with an emphasis on job growth, cleaning up downtown and law enforcement, attracting high paid jobs in the tech sector and protecting their beautiful heritage neigbourhoods from multiplexes - and Edmonton which does the opposite. Now if you came to Alberta as a immigrant which city would you want to live in? Which city has a better future for your kids

The civic governments of Calgary and Edmonton are not that different. The new Mayor of Calgary is a dude that grew up in a working class neighborhood and has few ties to the corporate business community in Calgary. Before him, Jodi Gondek is a tried and true liberal. Before her, Naheed Nenshi is the leader of the NDP. If these Calgary mayors are more conservative than Edmonton's past mayors, it can't be by much.

Calgary's warmer climate and proximity to the Rocky Mountains is one of the biggest factors why Calgary's growth has been more dynamic than Edmonton's growth. No need to explain why tourists will choose to fly into Calgary ahead of Edmonton or why corporate executives would prefer living closer to a recreational playground than further away. Move away from Calgary's downtown and into the suburbs and they're full of boring cookie cutter houses like anywhere else.

Edmonton does have good potential though. 1) Develop the River Valley into a cross country ski destination with a Nakiska hotel village as its hub and overnight lodges aka Skoki Lodge along a say 100 mile route. 2) Transform Boyle into an area of brownstones and low rise apartments aka Hell's Kitchen in NYC. 3) Replace the High Level Bridge with something modern to improve accessibility into downtown.

 

[archited]

^ Time wasted from the codfish from which you can never reclaim sanity.