Two stops to the southwest at Stadium Station, directly beside Commonwealth Stadium where the Eskimos of the Canadian Football League play, Brookfield is now developing the land for sale rather than the city. “We’re going to be putting in all of the roads, the new pedestrian crossing through the LRT right-of-way, building the two new parks, all the sidewalks, all the public infrastructure essentially,” says Cherie Stewart, senior manager of business development with Brookfield.
Once this work is complete there will be four plots of land that have been zoned for mixed use – or, essentially, residential and retail – “where developers can come in and build towers,” she says.
And the company is already in advanced talks with a developer from outside Edmonton to build towers on the site. “We really hope that this deal closes and then they can get into the ground right away,” Ms. Stewart says. “Best case would be 2021 that we would actually see some building, at the latest.”
Ms. Stewart says Brookfield envisions the land parcel as a dense, urban, transit-oriented village with retail shops along the streets and 1,400 housing units above it all. The project will ultimately look similar to dense developments you might see in Portland or Stockholm, she says, and its main selling features are its proximity – to the LRT, the nearby North Saskatchewan River valley and downtown. “And we feel that the Commonwealth Stadium, with concerts, football fans, all of those events, will really help liven that area up,” she says.
Still, Ms. Stewart says the project is “definitely a new concept for Edmonton.”
