Blatchford Development | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton

erudyk_29 said:
Anyone hear any rumblings about any development around the new LRT station? Seems odd that the Blatchford road network has not started to be built out around there, to encourage some developers to start building around this new station. Maybe the buildings will start to be announced once the roads are done?
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Construction on road and infrastructure links to actually internally link to the NAIT-Blatchford LRT are supposed to start in the spring (and hopefully gets somewhere by summer when the other half and I move in), at which point it actually starts to fulfil the "transit oriented development" mandate in some basic way. That probably opens a few doors.
 
David A said:
I think townhomes get a bad name in large part because some of the lower quality ones built years ago in some previous booms, but some of the new ones are actually quite nice.

They can be an improvement to areas where new ones are built to replace older, small, run down single family homes or fill in empty spaces.
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Yeah. The Landmark and Encore builds are really impressing me, and it's a far cry from the sorts of weird car-centred townhouse mazes that were grunted out in (for example) Abbottsfield in the terminal 1970s, or the copy-paste sprawl of the 2000s. Mutti seemed a bit lacklustre, and the Carbon Busters floor plans are a touch weird, but it's a format that works.

I really can't see it filling in with "just townhouses", though. When zoning allows for more than that right next to a major post-secondary, SOMETHING with a bit more density is going to grow. Will they get all of the mixed-use they plan for? Maybe not, or at least not right away, but as the population grows it's probably inevitable.
 
2024 marks Blatchford Renewable Energy’s fifth year of operating in Blatchford. In honour of this milestone, here are five quick facts you might not know about the system that’s heating and cooling this community’s buildings.

  1. Blatchford Renewable Energy operates a District Energy Sharing System (DESS) – a centralized system where thermal energy is distributed from a central location to multiple buildings in a neighbourhood.
  2. Homeowners don’t need a gas furnace or air conditioner – that’s because the system heats AND cools Blatchford’s homes. Bonus: it also heats the water.
  3. It’s a modular and flexible system – it’s being constructed in stages to match the pace of development in the neighbourhood and is able to incorporate the latest innovations in renewable energy.
  4. This first stage of the system uses a geoexchange field – the field harnesses shallow geothermal energy through 570 boreholes (each 150 metres deep) located beneath the community’s stormwater pond.
  5. It’s award-winning! In 2023, the system won two international awards. Blatchford itself won two Best New Community awards from the Canadian Homebuilders Association (regionally and nationally).
Aviation history is everywhere in Blatchford. The neighbourhood is built on the former Edmonton Municipal Airport grounds – once Canada’s first licensed airfield – and named after former Edmonton Mayor Kenneth Blatchford who, in 1927, convinced the city to establish an “air harbour”.

Take a walk through this growing community. You’ll discover its street names, pedestrian-only paths, family-friendly parks and other features reflect Edmonton’s legacy of aviation innovators and barrier-breakers. See photos of the seven historical nods listed below.



  1. Entrance feature – “Arrival Gate”. Created as a pedestrian gateway to the community rather than an entrance designed for vehicles, its design incorporates structural supports as a nod to the struts used in biplanes (an early type of aircraft).
  2. Littlewood Park. Named after pilot Margaret Littlewood, who flew and taught flying out of Edmonton’s Blatchford Field. Her impact on aviation includes training WWII pilots and bush pilots who helped explore the north, as well as airline crews.
  3. Former airport control tower. Plans are underway to renovate this distinctive landmark into a welcoming community space.
  4. Recycled/reused runway. Runway materials were crushed on site to be used for future roads. Some of the larger materials were repurposed in the base of Blatchford’s benches.
  5. 12-30 Runway. One of the airport’s two main runways,12-30 was named for how it aligned with magnetic north (‘12-30’ is shorthand for the compass point as an aircraft approaches an airfield – 120 degrees from the northwest, 300 from the southeast). Shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field cause magnetic north to change. A centrepiece shows how a compass would’ve aligned with magnetic north in 1942 when the runway was built. It also shows magnetic north in 2013, when the site was closed.
  6. Alpha Boulevard. Aircraft used Taxiway Alpha to access runways, terminals and hangars. Today its namesake features fully separated multi-use paths lined with trees on both sides.
  7. Takeoff. This art piece celebrates the vision needed for humans to achieve flight.

---

COE email update
 
Taken on March 10, 2024
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I can't wait for the day that this view will no longer be possible. I really do hope that NAIT starts building near the station sooner than later.
Also, has there ever been any announcement from the armed forces about the Armoury?
 
I don't really like the Qualico streetside townhomes although they have the best location so far one could argue - they back onto the lake and greenspace.

The units are 1100 sq ft on 3 levels and range from $400 to $420k. Still Blatchford pricey for that much sq.ft.

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12 lots up for sale - none sold yet.

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My favorite builder is Encore - very urban and timeless with great front entrance basement suites. They were pouring basements today in a new area where all but 4 or 30 or so units were sold.

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Landmark hasn't sold many of their stock yet.
 
The pricing on those Streetside homes is ridiculously competitive. They'll sell them very quickly if they can deliver a nice product at that price. I'm hoping the connection from the neighbourhood to the LRT station is made soon.
 
Barnaby said:
The pricing on those Streetside homes is ridiculously competitive. They'll sell them very quickly if they can deliver a nice product at that price. I'm hoping the connection from the neighbourhood to the LRT station is made soon.
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Yes, they will need to make that connection and the energy efficiency because they are selling the same model home in the west end for $70,000 less. Somebody could easily buy a new Tesla for that.

In Rosenthal
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In Blatchford
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Barnaby said:
I just had to Google Rosenthal. It should be $70k less being in such a horrible area.
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It will be interesting to see what sells faster. What if prices were cloae to the same? I would hope Blatchford would then sell faster.
 
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