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Repurposing / Upgrading Older Buildings

Daveography

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In the Newton neighbourhood, business owners are nearly giddy with enthusiasm over their bright new facade and the possibility of a barbecue/bouncy castle grand opening.

After years of debate, city planners believe they’ve finally found a solution to help reinvigorate at least some of the aging strip malls tucked out of sight in mature neighbourhoods across Edmonton. Newton, near Beverly, is one of their first. Ritchie Four Corners and Elmwood Centre are also going well, and city councillors just endorsed a plan to add five more pilot sites to the program.

“It’s terrific. It’s the best thing that ever happened in our neighbourhood,” said Katherine Holyk, whose father started Holyk’s Denture Centre in 1983. She now owns the store.

Her longtime clients are thrilled with the bright new white and red look, vintage murals and trees. New clients from the neighbourhood are also noticing her new sign and stopping in.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)
 
the possibility of a barbecue/bouncy castle grand opening.

I somehow read that and imagined that this was a business coming to the strip mall. It seems like a bad combination for one commercial space.

Declining strip malls are such a huge challenge just about everywhere in North America. Some day, I'd love to investigate how much success people have with aesthetic facelifts vs. trying to retrofit a more walkable scheme (not ideal explanation) vs. totally converting or demoing.
 
Corner store program seeing strong results: Community
The city's corner store rehabilitation program is producing results, officials and community members say.

The newly opened K-J Bowl at the Newton Centre, which opened in March, is bringing businesses back to a corner strip mall that had been mostly empty for years.

“A chronically vacant space is now fully leased,” said Braidon Reid, with the city's program, of the Newton Centre in the northeast. “Bowling alley business is up 20-25 per cent and there’s a summer league because there is new interest.”

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)
 
Edmonton’s vacant office towers could be turned into residential space, hotels or even multi-floor gardens, a new report suggests.

“Instead of breaking buildings down and doing major renovations, it’s easier to have temporary, environmentally friendly, low-cost conversions that you can always change a few years down the line,” said the report’s author, Satish Narayanan.

His report released Thursday by the Downtown Business Association highlighted seven towers around the world that have been successfully revamped after sitting vacant for more than five years. Approaches included turning office space into university housing, retail space and multi-generational dorm-style living. In Japan, a recruitment company incorporated an urban farm into its building, growing vegetables, fruit and rice.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)
 
In many ways, the old Edmonton Remand Centre and the west-end campus of MacEwan University could not be more different.

The former lock-up, at 97 Street and 103A Avenue, is a stark grey fortress with tiny windows, haunted by the bad memories of the thousands of people, guilty and not so guilty, who were locked up there over the years — not to mention the more than two dozen who died there.

Drive in a straight line due west, to 156 Street, and you come to the bright orange building that has, for decades, been home to MacEwan’s fine arts and performing arts program, a building with big windows and many joyous memories of all the concerts and plays and exhibits and lively student discussions it’s hosted over the years.

But as different as the two buildings are, they have this in common: they are both symptoms of Edmonton’s “empty edifice” complex.

The remand centre has been vacant since 2013, when the province moved remanded prisoners to a larger new facility in the city’s far northwest.

The MacEwan West building will be vacant as of August, when MacEwan consolidates on a downtown campus with a striking news fine arts centre.

So, in two core neighbourhoods of the city that both desperately need renewal and reinvestment, we’re left instead with two striking works of modernist architecture, paid for by provincial taxpayers, sitting empty.

And that leaves the City of Edmonton to try to figure out how to cope with the impact of the province’s cast-off infrastructure.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...ew-buildings-but-what-to-do-with-its-old-ones
 
Developer converts Edmonton office tower to rental apartments
A Calgary company is planning to convert an Edmonton office tower to rental apartment suites in a move that could help reduce the glut of downtown commercial space.

Harley Court, 10045 111 St., would become a mix of 177 one- and two-bedroom suites aimed primarily at students and young professionals, Randy Ferguson, chief operating officer of building owner Strategic Group, said Monday.

The $40-million renovation is intended to bring Strategic a steady stream of revenue at a time when the new Ice District towers are creating a “flight to quality” as tenants see a chance to switch to more up-to-date space, he said.

“We have this inventory which is aging and will increasingly be vacant, not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because there’s new inventory on hand.”

Although 15-storey Harley Court, built in 1977, is 86 per cent occupied, Ferguson said taking it residential would provide more secure revenue in the long run.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...ts-edmonton-office-tower-to-rental-apartments
 
City looking at ways to reduce Edmonton's high downtown office vacancy rates
The city is looking at taking steps to help reduce an 18 per cent downtown Edmonton office vacancy rate that might not return to a balanced level until at least 2030.

Vacancies have grown for more than two years and could reach 30 per cent by 2020, partly because the towers going up near Rogers Place will create far more space than downtown typically absorbs, according to material scheduled to be discussed Tuesday by city council’s executive committee.

Significant vacancies include the Bank of Montreal building at 10199 101 St., virtually empty aside from bank operations, and HSBC Bank Place a block north, listed as two-thirds unoccupied.

“Edmonton’s industry structure is changing, where traditional energy service-based businesses will not be the growth engine of the economy,” said a report by the Edmonton Economic Development Corp., adding that, without action, reaching a “healthy” 10 per cent overall vacancy rate will take more than 15 years.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...-edmontons-high-downtown-office-vacancy-rates
 
$60M sale of office tower 'defying' downtown trend: Project Lead
story-311031-365020-image-rendered.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg

KEVIN MAIMANN / METRO EDMONTON
The 9Triple8 office tower in downtown Edmonton.


A major sale of a downtown Edmonton office building is “defying” the trend of mounting vacancies.

Colliers announced Tuesday morning it has brokeraged a sale of the 9Triple8Jasper tower for more than $60 million, at a time when downtown’s vacancy rate is close to 20 per cent.

“Achieving that sort of a price in this sort of a market, for an income-producing asset, is defying what everything else has been going on,” said project lead Kevin Petterson.

KRP and Associated Engineering are the two main tenants, and more than 700 people are now working out of the building on 98 Street and Jasper Avenue.

Petterson said the owner, Hokanson Capital Inc., was able to overcome market uncertainty and skepticism by spending more than $20 million to renovate top to bottom, adding a fitness centre and retail spaces and upgrading to a LEED Gold standard.

With rising vacancies, he said tenants are flocking to newer, renovated spaces now that they can get lower rates.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...ower-defying-downtown-trend-project-lead.html
 
Looks like this building is getting partially converted to apartments or condos:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.5387...4!1sZqM2kX4P_5-RblPmBkoEgg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Reference ID: Job No 256780409-002
Description: To construct exterior alteration (Garbage Collection enclosure) and to convert a portion (upper 6 floors) of an existing 11 Storey, Professional, Financial and Office Support Services Use building to Apartments Housing (78 Dwelling units)
Location: 10621 - 100 AVENUE NW
Plan NB Blk 6 Lots 47-50
Applicant: KASIAN ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR DESIGN, PLANNING, PATRICIA
Status: To Be Assigned
Create Date: 10/12/2017 8:24:38 AM
Neighbourhood: DOWNTOWN
 
New report shows good news for Edmonton office vacancies
upload_2017-10-17_13-22-58.jpg

Edmonton's office vacancy rate is dropping for the first time in years as the economy continues to improve, according to a report by real estate firm CBRE Canada. LARRY WONG / POSTMEDIA
Edmonton has seen the first drop in office vacancy rates in five years as local economic conditions continue to improve, a new report from real estate firm CBRE Canada says.

Vacancies were down to 19.7 per cent in summer 2017 from 19.9 per cent in the previous three months, according to the company’s office and industrial stats report released Tuesday.

That’s the first decline since the summer of 2012, when the office vacancy for Edmonton shrank to 9.3 per cent from 9.9 per cent.

The report says the improvement was largely driven by activity in the downtown core, where the vacancy rate fell to 20.3 per cent from 20.6 per cent in the spring, the first reduction in the city centre since it dropped slightly to 9.9 per cent in spring 2015.

Landlords are making improvements to their buildings to keep their tenants, the report says.

However, the report warns that the better times might not last.

“Though economic conditions continue to improve, in August the Alberta government announced its intent to adjust future spending plans, as revenues in the first quarter were less than what was forecasted in the 2017/2018 budget,” the report says.

“Uncertainty in government spending has the potential to alter leasing activity in the short term.”

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...shows-good-news-for-edmonton-office-vacancies
 

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Former downtown MEC store getting new life as health and fitness centre
upload_2017-11-6_10-2-15.jpg

A colourful mural was painted on the sides of the old Mother's Music store when it became a market in 2014. JOHN LUCAS
Life is coming back to two large vacant downtown Edmonton buildings that are being transformed into fitness centres.

The former Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) store at 124 Street and 102 Avenue will become the city centre’s flagship Evolve Strength facility, location owner Johnny Wacko said Friday.

The 2,300-square-metre space, left empty after MEC moved to its new Brewery District outlet last spring, will include 21 offices for chiropractors, massage therapists, dietitians and other health and welfare practitioners, Wacko said.

It will also have a Brazilian jiu-jitsu studio, physiotherapy, a vegetarian restaurant and a personal training space and gym featuring Olympic and power weightlifting equipment.

The parking lot on the east side has 96 stalls, and there are places to put 24 bicycles, Wacko said.

“It’s an iconic building in the area. There’s very few buildings in the downtown area that are that size. It’s on a high-traffic corner — that area has the highest population density in Edmonton.”

Wacko expects 50 to 60 people will work in the facility, mostly independent practitioners who lease space. He plans to add four large picture windows to the west wall before opening in early January.

Meanwhile, eight-time women’s world boxing champion Jelena Mrdjenovich is converting the old Mother’s Music building at 109 Street and 102 Avenue into a boxing-focused fitness facility.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...getting-new-life-as-health-and-fitness-centre
 

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Looks like this building is getting partially converted to apartments or condos:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.5387...4!1sZqM2kX4P_5-RblPmBkoEgg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Reference ID: Job No 256780409-002
Description: To construct exterior alteration (Garbage Collection enclosure) and to convert a portion (upper 6 floors) of an existing 11 Storey, Professional, Financial and Office Support Services Use building to Apartments Housing (78 Dwelling units)
Location: 10621 - 100 AVENUE NW
Plan NB Blk 6 Lots 47-50
Applicant: KASIAN ARCHITECTURE, INTERIOR DESIGN, PLANNING, PATRICIA
Status: To Be Assigned
Create Date: 10/12/2017 8:24:38 AM
Neighbourhood: DOWNTOWN

PB080385.jpg
 

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ritchiemarket4resized.jpg

The Ritchie Market is home to Transcend Coffee, Velocity Cycle, the Blind Enthusiasm Brewery and the Biera brew pub/restaurant. March 21, 2017.
Paul Rampersaud/ Global News

Edmonton councillors are calling on city budget staff to top up a couple of lucrative grant programs for commercial development.

The grants are aimed at run-down locations that are plagued by derelict and ageing buildings or long-time vacant lots but they’ve been so popular, they’re fully subscribed. There’s no cash left.

Lately, the programs have helped make improvements in Petrolia and Ritchie.
“It’s a huge success,” Councillor Mike Nickel said. “It’s crazy. The program has done wonders for Ritchie in revitalizing what is a historic, four-corner area.”

One such project is a facade program that began in 2003 and has seen 215 storefronts improved, with the city putting in $7 million, generating $35 million in private sector investment.

Better than that is what staff call the development incentive program, which covers interior renovations, promotes construction in vacant spaces as well as infill for both commercial and residential buildings.

“This is about larger investments in those areas,” Henderson said.

https://globalnews.ca/news/3886507/edmonton-councillors-commercial-investment-grant-facade/
 

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