The Quarters Hotel and Residences | 280.1m | 80s | Alldritt Land | KENNEDY

What do you think of this project?

  • Total voters
    54
And the NIMBYs in Riverdale were worried about the Quarters Hotel and Residences. 15 years, maybe not -- I would suspect more like 25.
 
80-storey tower stirs up anxiety among downtown-area residents
Some downtown-area residents unhappy with the proposed 80-storey Quarters Hotel and Residence are hoping to stir up opposition to the project before the city makes a decision later this month.
The high rise, also known as the Alldritt Tower, is proposed for the site east of the Shaw Conference Centre on the embankment above Louise McKinney Park.

"I would much more prefer to see it ... closer to the other tall buildings downtown and further from the bank," said Riverdale resident Andrea Willhelm.

She worries the public consultation on the project held in October only reached residents nearby, so she helping to organize an open house for the wider community at the Boyle Street Community Hall Saturday.
Click to expand...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alldritt-tower-quarters-edmonton-building-1.4057733
 
Alldritt should fly a stationary drone at the height apex of the tower so the Riverdale people can chill out -- it will have no effect on their views or their back yards or their misguided psyches. This is a bold, smart project and is good for Edmonton.
 
Residents concerned proposed 80-storey tower will 'kill' The Quarters
Boyle Street and Riverdale residents opposed to the sale and development of river valley parkland near The Quarters say the project is “short-term thinking” that will “kill” the area’s redevelopment plan.

Residents raised concern about the development’s effect on The Quarters during a weekend public information meeting Saturday about the 80-storey Alldritt tower proposed for parkland located south of Jasper Avenue and west of 96 Street.

“The tower could negate the plan for The Quarters entirely,” resident Joelle Reiniger said. “We need to make development decisions that we will be proud of 50 years from now. This is one of Edmonton’s oldest neighbourhoods.”

Reiniger bought her home in the area because of The Quarters plan. She said the proposed tower “represents a radical change to the vision of The Quarters.”
Click to expand...

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...oposed-80-storey-tower-will-kill-the-quarters
 
How can you "kill" something that is already "dead"? If anything, projects like this would bring this part of the (downtown) City back to life. I know there are lots of developer-type landowners who own 'parking lots' in the Quarters just waiting for someone to make a bold move. This project would spur all kinds of development -- the counter-argument is simply ridiculous!
 
I have a sense that people that complain about this gentrifying the area and killing the river valley connection haven't frequented the area often. They hear Boyle and think of the homeless shelters and low income housing, but don't realize there's about 5 blocks of parking lots between the two areas. Then with the park they think that it's like any other piece of the riverbank, when in reality it is cut off from the river valley by Greirson Hill Road. If this was east of Grierson on the river bank, or a few blocks in to Quarters I completely agree. The way it is I see that podium as the best thing that could ever be done for that useless part of the embankment, as long as much of it remains open to the public.
 
One step closer: Edmonton approves river valley land sale for 80-storey tower
City council voted to approve the sale of public river-valley land for a contentious 80-storey tower Tuesday, but the fate of the building still hinges on rezoning.

City council members spoke in private Tuesday about the top-secret land sale over Alldritt Land Corporation’s proposed tower, which would carve a small portion of river valley land at Grierson Hill Road and Jasper Avenue.

“It’s not a real agreement until the zoning is considered,” Mayor Don Iveson told reporters following the meeting.
Click to expand...

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...sale-80-storey-tower.html?cq_ck=1491956142906

Edmonton council OK's land sale for controversial 80-storey Alldritt Tower
City council gave conditional approval Tuesday to sell a piece of river valley parkland for an 80-storey tower in The Quarters.

The motion passed 9-3, with councillors Ben Henderson, Scott McKeen and Michael Walters opposed. The project still needs rezoning approval April 24 to go ahead.

“The public interest, I didn’t feel was protected enough. There was some risk that crossed the threshold for me,” McKeen said after the vote late Tuesday. The debate was held in private; the vote was in public.
Click to expand...

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...le-for-controversial-80-storey-alldritt-tower
 
Last edited:
WHY OUR DEBATE ABOUT THE TOWER WON'T DISCUSS WHAT AILS THE QUARTERS
Does The Quarters need an 80-storey residential tower to revitalize it?

The question is the only one on the table at the moment and will therefore demand our attention. But the question isn't what we need to ask about The Quarters. Asking it and only it avoids the problem we really need to talk about with our ailing downtown neighbourhood.

That's surface parking.
Click to expand...

https://www.timquerengesser.com/blo...tall-tower-wont-get-at-what-ails-the-quarters
 
I disagree -- surface parking is a symptom not a cause. If one were somehow able to wave a magic wand over the area that banned all surface parking, nothing, development-wise, would shift. The area needs a game changer (and I don't mean a misguided effort to add street paving tiles and nifty benches and public art). The Alldritt tower, I believe, is just such a game-changer. It will bring loads of people to the Quarters along Jasper Avenue. And, once this section of Jasper Avenue gains gentrification, it will encourage other developers to follow suit. The point that many of the detractors miss is that the Alldritt scheme is a QUALITY development. It is sure to attract a four-star hotel (proximity to the Convention Centre and the river valley views). Hotel patrons will bring a demand for retail and hospitality in the form of restaurants, bistros, and bars. The development will actually add impetus to the business model for the Convention Centre (you can bet that the backroom chatter between politicians and convention managers and EEDC is all positive re this development).

Even the Riverdale folks should realise that this development will usher in a new vibrancy to the area that will surely increase the livability of their community, not to mention increased property values.

A big reason for the sustainability of surface parking in the northern part of the Quarters is the proximity of the Law Courts buildings and the daily comings and goings of law suit provenders. This was true 50 years ago and is even more relevant today. Instead of spending millions on street face lifts for the "Armature", if the city had built a long parking structure under that appendage and subsidized it, the rationale for surface parking would have disappeared and forced landholders to consider other alternatives for their land (certainly their "bravery quotient" would have gone up). I had made this case to the City's Walter Trocenko back when the Quarters was in the ideation stage, but the concept went past him (presumably because it was not glamorous enough).

Two projects that I believe will gain immediate impetus when the permits for the Alldritt tower are fact are the historically relevant... 1. Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Barbara property (101o5 - 96th St. NW) and 2. the Grierson Centre (formerly the RCMP headquarters and barracks in downtown Edmonton).

The Cathedral of St. Barbara property, as well as retaining the architecturally significant cathedral, has sufficient property adjacent to the church for a mixed-use development that could include a Russian settlers museum, a themed shopping centre and a residential tower, especially if it were to encompass the adjacent brick walk-up -- talk about river valley views!

The Grierson Centre I envision as a hip, vibrant shopping mecca composed of one-of-a-kind retail, pubs, eateries, and art galleries.

And -- I say it again -- the City should focus on this section of Jasper Avenue as a significant pedestrian mecca, what with the historical structures that have been preserved added to those that should be preserved. Maybe we could have an arced canopy over the motor way with pedestrian-oriented encroachments that encourage outdoor seating, entertainment and musings of one sort or another.

The Alldritt project can instigate and propel all of this development immediately.
 
Last edited:
I think Tim's point is valid, though; there seems to be a pent up demand attempting to be fulfilled by a single, massively tall project. It's not unreasonable to imagine if it weren't so easy to make a mint off a gravel parking lot, those landowners might have been more inclined to sell or redevelop to fulfill more of that demand in smaller-scaled projects filling in more of the land.
 
Oh, I agree that there is demand for the parking space, but I believe that it is driven by the law courts and to some lesser extent City Hall and the cultural enclave on 99th street. I once owned property in the Boyle street area -- a beautiful two-storey Victorian with a turreted feature facing the street. I actually moved into the house for a year while -- I was excited about renovating it to standards of past glory -- I refurbished and rebuilt. While there, I saw the neighbourhood deteriorate around me -- there were a few old-timers who grew up in the area when times were better; but, mostly, the population consisted of transients who were renting out rooms at rock-bottom prices. As these -- let's call them tenements -- grew more and more downfallen, languishing in a near-constant state of disrepair, they began to be shuttered and demolished. Eventually, I was disheartened to the point that when an outsized offer came along for my property, I sold. And it, too, was demolished. There may have been some thought on the part of the developer who purchased my property to consolidate lots and do a new development, but that was soon superseded by a practical need to earn an income that was subtended by something less risky -- succumbing to the demand for parking.

Now I know that there are some extremely wealthy landowners in the area (one of them is even a well-known and respected Edmonton Architect). And there will come a day when all of these parking lots will vanish -- not because some planner at City Hall has mapped out what he/she deems to be the ideal community, not because a major investment has been made in beautification and public realm infrastructure, and certainly not because of hyped-up superficial demand. More simply, it will be because some significant major development starts to "turn" the area. Let me make this more personal -- would you @Daveography, if I were to build a (say) 20-storey condo on 96th street and 102nd avenue, consider purchasing a unit to move into. I suspect that your answer would be "no", especially if I was asking market rates for the unit. The Alldritt concept is a game changer -- it is big enough, bold enough and has the design cachet to, first and foremost, change the eastern end of Jasper Avenue, and, like other bold developments, usher in a massive neighbourhood structural change that will see the surface lots disappear.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top