Looks like a decent sized retail bay(s) at the base, will be interesting to see how that works. Richmond Road here is super weird due to the realignment of the streets at the time of Crowchild Trail construction, so it's not fronting onto a "main street", but rather an weird vestigial edge of a former main street. Still, there's huge money and population growth in every direction with zero retail growth outside of Marda Loop itself so perhaps not surprising.

My suspicion is that the retail alignment is banking on the redevelopment of that abandoned Viscount Bennett school site to the immediate south. There's been lots of interest in the past for the site, as it's likely the largest single redevelopment opportunity in the area in a single parcel. Could easily fit a few hundred units of different configurations on the parcel, more if you include a tower or two. With an permanently hot redevelopment market and really high prices in all directions I would expect/hope some interest to really do something uniquely interesting here.

The Viscount Bennett site is highlighted in yellow, it's approximately the same size as the entire main stretch of Marda Loop, to put it into perspective on the large size.

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Minto is on the final stage of buying this land for redevelopment. We received a brochure from Minto in our mail box for neighborhood engagement.
 
I'd love to see a temporary art installation at Viscount Bennett, like they did for King Edward School before it was renovated, or like for those houses in Sunnyside before they were torn down. I always liked the midcentury lettering on the side of the building, and have good memories of the playground and biking with my son in the huge parking lot, but never actually went inside the building.
 
Slowest .……. Project ………… ever

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