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

[thommyjo]

As much as I want the prices in Blatchford to be as affordable as possible (believe me), this area is quite different from a "new suburb" in a few key ways and that may justify the slightly higher price.

Correct;

It’s surrounded by areas of high crime, homelessness, and industrial spaces. It’s got an ugly hotel and sea of parking as it’s “entrance” to the community, not a beautiful waterfall over fancy rocks with a nice sign and landscaping.

Not trying to be a complete naysayer haha. But that’s the challenge for the pricing. Sure, the energy stuff, central location, LRT, etc will be a sell and attraction for some. But more people care about safety, perceptions of disorder, etc.

If you look at these exact townhomes in marquis, they’re 95% sold out.

Inglewood is a much more attractive option IMO for more people looking to be central but with still a cheaper price point. Blatchford needs to nail some retail to compete with 124th I think.

 

[SarcasticMarmot]

If Streetside can't sell $370k product in Blatchford, you can pretty much kiss goodbye any hope of significant absorption over the next few years.

I think its also somewhat about the exact context of these two bedroom townhomes. There is a glut of two bedroom condo/small house options in central Edmonton at much cheaper price points. You have alot of options. Plus, many younger folks who usually buy 2 bedrooms can't afford a starting place of 400k + and the seniors downsizing won't buy them because of all the stairs.

Everything else that is family sized at 3/4 bedrooms is selling out relatively quickly. That's what is rare centrally and where a premium for new can be made up.

 

[Platinum107]

Correct;

It’s surrounded by areas of high crime, homelessness, and industrial spaces. It’s got an ugly hotel and sea of parking as it’s “entrance” to the community, not a beautiful waterfall over fancy rocks with a nice sign and landscaping.

Not trying to be a complete naysayer haha. But that’s the challenge for the pricing. Sure, the energy stuff, central location, LRT, etc will be a sell and attraction for some. But more people care about safety, perceptions of disorder, etc.

If you look at these exact townhomes in marquis, they’re 95% sold out.

Inglewood is a much more attractive option IMO for more people looking to be central but with still a cheaper price point. Blatchford needs to nail some retail to compete with 124th I think.

If you're in the market for as cheap of a new house/townhouse as you can get, there's unlimited options all around the periphery of the city; Stillwater, The Hills, Chrystallina, you name it. Some of them may even have a beautiful waterfall with rocks and a nice sign!

What else do these neighborhoods all have in common? 1) Their locations are shit. 2) At least $20,000 a year going to two cars if you have a family, because there's no way you're getting by with just one. 3) The neighbourhoods themselves are extremely mind-numbingly boring and provide little opportunity for out-of-car activities other than going for a walk.

Yes I want everything to be cheaper. In a perfect world Blatchford would be the cheapest neighborhood and it would be exploding right now with development and residents. But it is better than Marquis, or Stillwater, or Heritage Valley or any other new suburb because of its amazing location and access to downtown, employment, post-secondaries and the city at large. It's better because it already has a lot of variation in the built form of its townhomes, with more variation on the way between different types of housing and buildings. It's better because it incorporates thoughtful design elements and art pieces into it's parks, greenways, and streetscapes. And it's better because it actually makes an effort to meaningfully incorporate active transit infrastructure into its fabric, rather than just slapping a shared use path on the side of a stroad. It may have taken a long time to get off the ground, fair enough, but it's reached the tipping point and construction is heating up like crazy. It will be one of the most desirable communities in Edmonton within the decade.

In my opinion it's so unfair to compare Blatchford to a new suburb in terms of pricing because it offers something so different to potential residents.

 

[Kosy123]

Are sales slowing down in Blatchford to warrant these thoughts? Last time I visited, it seemed that there were a lot of "sold" signs.

 

[thommyjo]

If you're in the market for as cheap of a new house/townhouse as you can get, there's unlimited options all around the periphery of the city; Stillwater, The Hills, Chrystallina, you name it. Some of them may even have a beautiful waterfall with rocks and a nice sign!

What else do these neighborhoods all have in common? 1) Their locations are shit. 2) At least $20,000 a year going to two cars if you have a family, because there's no way you're getting by with just one. 3) The neighbourhoods themselves are extremely mind-numbingly boring and provide little opportunity for out-of-car activities other than going for a walk.

Yes I want everything to be cheaper. In a perfect world Blatchford would be the cheapest neighborhood and it would be exploding right now with development and residents. But it is better than Marquis, or Stillwater, or Heritage Valley or any other new suburb because of its amazing location and access to downtown, employment, post-secondaries and the city at large. It's better because it already has a lot of variation in the built form of its townhomes, with more variation on the way between different types of housing and buildings. It's better because it incorporates thoughtful design elements and art pieces into it's parks, greenways, and streetscapes. And it's better because it actually makes an effort to meaningfully incorporate active transit infrastructure into its fabric, rather than just slapping a shared use path on the side of a stroad. It may have taken a long time to get off the ground, fair enough, but it's reached the tipping point and construction is heating up like crazy. It will be one of the most desirable communities in Edmonton within the decade.

In my opinion it's so unfair to compare Blatchford to a new suburb in terms of pricing because it offers something so different to potential residents.

Tbh (I’m a pretty big blatchford booster) I think you’re overvaluing the location still.

1) It’s central, but so are lots of other areas. The difference is they won’t be a construction zone for 10 more years. So that can turn people off.

2) it’s central, but the LRT access isn’t great and it’s a less useful line arguably for daily trips vs valley line and living in Holyrood, Westmount, etc.

3) the walkability and biking is about as bad as it comes for a central area *currently*. Yes, it’ll get better. But is it worth waiting 6+ years vs just having a good spot today.

4) it’s got a lot more crime around it than other central areas. Kingsway mall, the metro line, king ave and the stores along it, etc are all “rougher” than comparable neighborhoods.

5) The trees suck. Half the fun of a mature area is the amazing, big trees!

I’m not trying to bash blatchford or the vision, just saying that it doesn’t have a good target market. Most people wanting to live centrally can find more of what they want in other central neighborhoods. And those who don’t care where they live, will be turned off by slightly higher prices and a less attractive neighborhood vs the suburban equivalents to these homes.

We just bought in westmount actually. Have looked many times in blatchford. But it’s just not worth it for us. In 15 years maybe. But I’d rather walk to the valley line, be next to Wihkwentowin, have 124th street around the corner, have tree lined streets, have existing bike lanes that actually connect to the city, etc. vs the metro line, barely useable bike lanes, kingsway ave box box retail, no local spots within 5mins, no walkable school yet, small trees.

 

[Oilers99]

Correct;

It’s surrounded by areas of high crime, homelessness, and industrial spaces. It’s got an ugly hotel and sea of parking as it’s “entrance” to the community, not a beautiful waterfall over fancy rocks with a nice sign and landscaping.

Not trying to be a complete naysayer haha. But that’s the challenge for the pricing. Sure, the energy stuff, central location, LRT, etc will be a sell and attraction for some. But more people care about safety, perceptions of disorder, etc.

If you look at these exact townhomes in marquis, they’re 95% sold out.

Inglewood is a much more attractive option IMO for more people looking to be central but with still a cheaper price point. Blatchford needs to nail some retail to compete with 124th I think.

this being the operative point, whether people want to believe it on this forum or not. streetside knows what they are doing, if they can't sell in blatchford, it is not an indication on their product but the neighborhood of blatchford...

 

[Coprolite]

Correct;

It’s surrounded by areas of high crime, homelessness, and industrial spaces. It’s got an ugly hotel and sea of parking as it’s “entrance” to the community, not a beautiful waterfall over fancy rocks with a nice sign and landscaping.

Not trying to be a complete naysayer haha. But that’s the challenge for the pricing. Sure, the energy stuff, central location, LRT, etc will be a sell and attraction for some. But more people care about safety, perceptions of disorder, etc.

If you look at these exact townhomes in marquis, they’re 95% sold out.

Inglewood is a much more attractive option IMO for more people looking to be central but with still a cheaper price point. Blatchford needs to nail some retail to compete with 124th I think.

Well, since I've moved in, disorder has been pretty much nil, while I hear a lot of complaints about it from (admittedly dramatic) folks in Inglewood. My folks put up with worse out in Bon Accord for 40 years. And yeah, I have an LRT station with easy access, good walkability, easy access to groceries, easy (and improving) bike access to downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy or 124 Street, and I'm not out at the ragged edge.

Pricewise, Inglewood wasn't really offering any significant savings that weren't going to be a project, and neither of us were eager to take on a bunch of old house issues.

this being the operative point, whether people want to believe it on this forum or not. streetside knows what they are doing, if they can't sell in blatchford, it is not an indication on their product but the neighborhood of blatchford...

Pretty much everything built has sold, even Mutti's houses and all of their issues. Encore has sold an entire block of houses that isn't even near substantial completion yet. And when it came time to find renters for our secondary suite, we got that done over a weekend and had no shortage of good applicants. The only thing that hasn't mostly sold is Carbon Busters, and despite whatever issues they're having that has stalled them, they still managed to sell one.

 

[thommyjo]

Well, since I've moved in, disorder has been pretty much nil, while I hear a lot of complaints about it from (admittedly dramatic) folks in Inglewood. My folks put up with worse out in Bon Accord for 40 years. And yeah, I have an LRT station with easy access, good walkability, easy access to groceries, easy (and improving) bike access to downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy or 124 Street, and I'm not out at the ragged edge.

Pricewise, Inglewood wasn't really offering any significant savings that weren't going to be a project, and neither of us were eager to take on a bunch of old house issues.

Pretty much everything built has sold, even Mutti's houses and all of their issues. Encore has sold an entire block of houses that isn't even near substantial completion yet. And when it came time to find renters for our secondary suite, we got that done over a weekend and had no shortage of good applicants. The only thing that hasn't mostly sold is Carbon Busters, and despite whatever issues they're having that has stalled them, they still managed to sell one.

View attachment 618393

Agreed, blatchford itself doesn’t have disorder. Just the challenge of using anything to the south or east. When I bike up the LRT tracks to get to blatchford from Rogers, that’s some of the worst disorder in our city along that stretch. Kingsway is known for its challenges too.

I’d argue on the walkability a bit. Especially with the 8+ lanes of kingsway ave. That shopping centre is pretty solid, just crappy access from blatchford. It can be “walked to”. But I don’t think it fits any definition of “walkability” as defined in urbanism.

I do think blatchford is a great buy and hold though. It’ll be amazing once built out hopefully. Just needs some time. Which might be why the more entry household price points aren’t selling as fast?

 

[Oilers99]

i don't really know how anyone can say blatchford is desirable as a new community other than having some proximity to downtown.

 

[Coprolite]

Agreed, blatchford itself doesn’t have disorder. Just the challenge of using anything to the south or east. When I bike up the LRT tracks to get to blatchford from Rogers, that’s some of the worst disorder in our city along that stretch. Kingsway is known for its challenges too.

I’d argue on the walkability a bit. Especially with the 8+ lanes of kingsway ave. That shopping centre is pretty solid, just crappy access from blatchford. It can be “walked to”. But I don’t think it fits any definition of “walkability” as defined in urbanism.

I do think blatchford is a great buy and hold though. It’ll be amazing once built out hopefully. Just needs some time. Which might be why the more entry household price points aren’t selling as fast?

Eh. My bike trip downtown down 113 street is actually kind of nice? And that is getting a bike infrastructure upgrade next year. The sketchiest spot along it is right at 107 Ave, and even that isn't actually bad. Getting to Little Italy has gotten good too, where Kingsway is again the only bad crossing.

I'd figured that crossing Kingsway would be a worse experience than it actually is. It's a bad spot, but it's the ONLY bad spot on my route to the grocery store. I only have the one traffic light. When I lived in Wîhkwêntôwin or Boyle-McCauley, getting to a grocery store typically entailed walking alongside a terrible stroad or several bad crossings and a succession of lights. Or I can go east to the little Polish Deli by NAIT and have a better crossing and again one traffic light. The real hidden gem for groceries though is the NAIT Artisanal Food Market which I can get to only having to cross the LRT tracks.

I'm not sure that there's really enough data to draw much by way of conclusions about the entry household points. Streetside hasn't really had a sales presence until recently and I'm not sure they even have a show home yet. They were completely absent from the last "block party" (ie thinly disguised realty sales event) we had here. But if I were looking at theirs, it would be REALLY tempting to look across the street and get a nicer unit for only a slightly higher price at NX.

 

[Coprolite]

i don't really know how anyone can say blatchford is desirable as a new community other than having some proximity to downtown.

And yet somehow people live here. Go figure, eh?

 

[Coprolite]

If you're in the market for as cheap of a new house/townhouse as you can get, there's unlimited options all around the periphery of the city; Stillwater, The Hills, Chrystallina, you name it. Some of them may even have a beautiful waterfall with rocks and a nice sign!

What else do these neighborhoods all have in common? 1) Their locations are shit. 2) At least $20,000 a year going to two cars if you have a family, because there's no way you're getting by with just one. 3) The neighbourhoods themselves are extremely mind-numbingly boring and provide little opportunity for out-of-car activities other than going for a walk.

Yes I want everything to be cheaper. In a perfect world Blatchford would be the cheapest neighborhood and it would be exploding right now with development and residents. But it is better than Marquis, or Stillwater, or Heritage Valley or any other new suburb because of its amazing location and access to downtown, employment, post-secondaries and the city at large. It's better because it already has a lot of variation in the built form of its townhomes, with more variation on the way between different types of housing and buildings. It's better because it incorporates thoughtful design elements and art pieces into it's parks, greenways, and streetscapes. And it's better because it actually makes an effort to meaningfully incorporate active transit infrastructure into its fabric, rather than just slapping a shared use path on the side of a stroad. It may have taken a long time to get off the ground, fair enough, but it's reached the tipping point and construction is heating up like crazy. It will be one of the most desirable communities in Edmonton within the decade.

In my opinion it's so unfair to compare Blatchford to a new suburb in terms of pricing because it offers something so different to potential residents.

That's pretty much the math that landed my other half and I here. Our options in the missing middle basically boiled down to infills that were no cheaper or stuff that was utterly placeless and completely car dependent.

 

[MattPT]

Street side doesn’t have yards? Are they the only attached garage units in blatchford? The other houses have yards and detached garages with basement or garage suites… makes sense why everything is selling well except this one. Street side is basically small expensive condos without condo fees. The sky is not falling, this was just a miss by the developer in a city of endlessly available cheap condos.

Edmonton must be the only place in Canada where people can think a central location with two train stations, beside a post secondary institution, short walk, bike, drive, train to ANOTHER university AND downtown, beside a grocery store, with huge park space with water feature, easy access to a crosstown freeway, is a bad location . Imagine this development in a similar location in Calgary or Ottawa. It’s actually hilarious. But I guess for Bertans, urban living is a short drive to a Walmart, BPs, and a Timmy’s lol.

Another issue Edmonton has always had is how condescending people from the west end and south side are towards the north side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with blatchford location expect preconceptions. And the “social disorder” people have anecdotally witnessed in this area is no different than anywhere in the greater central area of Edmonton,

 

[fjordgard]

Street side doesn’t have yards? Are they the only attached garage units in blatchford? The other houses have yards and detached garages with basement or garage suites… makes sense why everything is selling well except this one. Street side is basically small expensive condos without condo fees. The sky is not falling, this was just a miss by the developer in a city of endlessly available cheap condos.

Edmonton must be the only place in Canada where people can think a central location with two train stations, beside a post secondary institution, short walk, bike, drive, train to ANOTHER university AND downtown, beside a grocery store, with huge park space with water feature, easy access to a crosstown freeway, is a bad location . Imagine this development in a similar location in Calgary or Ottawa. It’s actually hilarious. But I guess for Bertans, urban living is a short drive to a Walmart, BPs, and a Timmy’s lol.

Another issue Edmonton has always had is how condescending people from the west end and south side are towards the north side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with blatchford location expect preconceptions. And the “social disorder” people have anecdotally witnessed in this area is no different than anywhere in the greater central area of Edmonton,

I believe Streetside units will have condo fees, actually... My understanding is that NX Build and Streetside are both condo-style townhomes... But I am not willing to call Streetside a miss quite yet - we will see what happens once they have a showhome open. But I admit it is looking like a slow seller compared to other stuff in Blatchford right now.

My favourite part about your comment on Blatchford's location is that there IS a Walmart, BPs and Timmys all just a short drive away. And with the LRT connection, its just a 15ish minute walk! Your comment is spot-on all around though. Bravo!

 

[Coprolite]

Street side doesn’t have yards? Are they the only attached garage units in blatchford? The other houses have yards and detached garages with basement or garage suites… makes sense why everything is selling well except this one. Street side is basically small expensive condos without condo fees. The sky is not falling, this was just a miss by the developer in a city of endlessly available cheap condos.

Edmonton must be the only place in Canada where people can think a central location with two train stations, beside a post secondary institution, short walk, bike, drive, train to ANOTHER university AND downtown, beside a grocery store, with huge park space with water feature, easy access to a crosstown freeway, is a bad location . Imagine this development in a similar location in Calgary or Ottawa. It’s actually hilarious. But I guess for Bertans, urban living is a short drive to a Walmart, BPs, and a Timmy’s lol.

Another issue Edmonton has always had is how condescending people from the west end and south side are towards the north side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with blatchford location expect preconceptions. And the “social disorder” people have anecdotally witnessed in this area is no different than anywhere in the greater central area of Edmonton,

Streetside is the only "attached garage on the main floor" option so far. NX has an underground parking garage that is accessible via the basement of one's unit. Streetside also still seems to be lacking any kind of show home or on site sales office, while NX was actively showing their units to someone when I walked by their complex this morning.

Admittedly, I wasn't so stoked about the proximity to the Yellowhead, but in practice it's far enough away that I don't hear it. I also get no real traffic noise from Kingsway despite being about as close to it as you can get within the development.

Oh, and it's actually a train to TWO universities.

Also, I'm at least twice as condescending towards west enders and south siders as they are towards me. I mean the way they go on so dramatically about how rough my neck of the woods is, they're lucky they don't get viciously lacerated by a sharp cheddar in the cheese aisle at Costco.