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

I'm not sure if this sign is new or not.
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Canada Lands Company and it's management of Griesbach appear to me a success. It seems like they created something different from the norm perhaps with better quality builds, high demand and creating a trendy area. When I look at Blatchford and Fort Road, the City seems to be struggling. How is Canada Lands approach different than the City's?
 
Griesbach also took forever to gain real mementum. Blatchford doesn't have any transit connection yet, and it's a neighbourhood that sells itself on that very connection. The streets to the NAIT station will be completed by next spring, and I'm thinking that will lead to more development east of the old control tower.

They really need to nail the town centre area, and avoid the parking lot strip mall that Griesbach's has become.
 
Barnaby said:
Griesbach also took forever to gain real mementum. Blatchford doesn't have any transit connection yet, and it's a neighbourhood that sells itself on that very connection. The streets to the NAIT station will be completed by next spring, and I'm thinking that will lead to more development east of the old control tower.

They really need to nail the town centre area, and avoid the parking lot strip mall that Griesbach's has become.
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Exactly! Griesbach started in the 90's - so it's been at least 3 decades in the making. I remember the first 10 years there was zilch happening. So let's be patient with Blatchford....
 
Greisbach also has a nice surrounding area. Fort Road and Blatchford, not so much. A direct comparison isn't close to accurate based on the neighborhoods.
 
jason403 said:
Greisbach also has a nice surrounding area. Fort Road and Blatchford, not so much. A direct comparison isn't close to accurate based on the neighborhoods.
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I wouldn't agree. 97th is essentially a freeway, and everything north of it is sprawl. Crossing the Yellowhead and Walker Yard by bike is hell until the LRT bridge is constructed. Atleast Blatchford has NAIT, a major mall and 2 LRT connections. Bike connections still need some work to cross 118th safely.

If you offer me the same house in either neighbourhood I'm never choosing Griesbach. Obviously I'm biased if you look at my post history, but I've spent YEARS in Griesbach, it's as much of an isolated suburb as many claim Blatchford will be.

It's a nice bedroom community with some urban niceties.
 
Just from a project management perspective and not counting pros and cons of the location and adjacent amenities, can it be said that Canada Lands has done a better job than the City? If Canada Lands was responsible for Blatchford and Fort Road, would they have made different decisions that would have encouraged more builders and consumers to get on board or would it look largely the same?
 
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Blatchford and Greisbach = apples and oranges

I think some of you are forgetting that Blatchford is being built with more expensive housing due to more stringent environmental standards, otherwise I'd bet you dollars to donuts that it would be no different from Canada Lands.
 
I lived in griesbach. I think first homes went up in 2002-2003.

It is definitely not 95% single family homes based on # of overall units - lots of apartment now and townhomes.

I don't know % breakdown but the number thrown out above is not accurate.
 
Ned said:
Just from a project management perspective and not counting pros and cons of the location and adjacent amenities, can it be said that Canada Lands has done a better job than the City? If Canada Lands was responsible for Blatchford and Fort Road, would they have made different decisions that would have encouraged more builders and consumers to get on board or would it look largely the same?
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I think if you gave Canada Lands the Blatchford project from the start with the same/similar mandates that Blatchford has (i.e. 100% energy efficiency), I like to think they would have worked a lot harder to create a redevelopment plan that was actually viable with the local development/homebuilder community, and also proposed much more realistic construction timelines to curtail public expectations. I don't know what the degree of consultations the City did, but their original projections so far have been so unbelievably detached from reality that it's clear their modeling was based on some severely flawed assumptions and market fundamentals.
 
northlands said:
I think if you gave Canada Lands the Blatchford project from the start with the same/similar mandates that Blatchford has (i.e. 100% energy efficiency), I like to think they would have worked a lot harder to create a redevelopment plan that was actually viable with the local development/homebuilder community, and also proposed much more realistic construction timelines to curtail public expectations. I don't know what the degree of consultations the City did, but their original projections so far have been so unbelievably detached from reality that it's clear their modeling was based on some severely flawed assumptions and market fundamentals.
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This is exactly what CLC did with Griesbach and now it is flying and they are working toward their last quarter section of land.

The thing that indicates Blatchford has been so poorly handled is that no major local homebuilder was a participant except for Landmark going in recently.
 
You guys do know that Encore has been crushing it with their sales? Everything they put to market sells long before it's built.
 
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