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Greenspace said:
The mayor doesn't understand how finances work or how this was going to be paid for. In playing politics Downtown looses.

urbanaffairs.ca

Downtown Growth has Stalled — and Tensions are Mounting | Urban Affairs

Developers are frustrated by council’s rejection of a plan to subsidize residential builds in the core
urbanaffairs.ca urbanaffairs.ca
Click to expand...
Which should be a shock to absolutely no one that the Mayor doesn't understand how this works.

Sohi needs to be out as mayor yesterday. This is mindset from him is exactly the type of lack of city building, lack of bold leadership, lack of vision, and demonstrated ineptitude that drives my personal opinion that he is one of, if not the worst mayor we have had in decades. Incredibly short sighted and just not even close to what downtown and the city as a whole needs right now.

A big role that governments play is assisting with making markets an appealing place to participate. When the market is tepid like downtown is, the government should be playing a role in making it attractive to investment, not scaring off any remaining interest. As the article says, developers will be happy to continue to choose outside the Henday in the burbs and/or Calgary. Bravo.
 
While I don't agree with some on subsidies for residential building, I will say the current Mayor and Council are amazingly consistent on their approach to downtown issues and problems.

It is pretty much do nothing or do as little as possible to help. I do believe one of the big problems is the lack of an advocate for the downtown on the current council..

I also feel politically, it will be very hard to defend this approach when an election comes, whether it be to some developers who may be unhappy and won't contribute to their campaigns or people, like many of us here, who feel governments should actually do something about problems.
 
Greenspace said:
The mayor doesn't understand how finances work or how this was going to be paid for. In playing politics Downtown looses.

urbanaffairs.ca

Downtown Growth has Stalled — and Tensions are Mounting | Urban Affairs

Developers are frustrated by council’s rejection of a plan to subsidize residential builds in the core
urbanaffairs.ca urbanaffairs.ca
Click to expand...

"Banks don’t want to finance these projects. Rental projects are the way to go, but rents aren’t high enough to justify the capital costs."

So the feds just made a major announcement of $15 billion for low interest loans to developers of new rental projects to help address the barrier of high capital costs. Plus a savings of 5% with no GST. With access to cheaper cash, and no GST - I take it developers still say that's not enough? Rents are also steadily increasing and definitely trending higher so three years from now, is that the same issue? I see $2000/month for 650 sq ft now in some new projects with parking extra. I'd like to hear a number from developers what is required for rent to make it feasible for them.

And does the province have any role in this?
 
^interest rates might decrease this summer too, especially as the jobs numbers for this month have been anemic at best
 
^CMHC almost exclusively providing financing ($15B fed announcement is through CMHC for the most part) for all these projects. They won't fund the Downtown projects because the formula doesn't work. A percentage of the units must be under market value. There's some lobbying the feds for changing to how CMHC does calculations. One example -- they calculate cost of living including of transportation in the rental rates they can charge, except people living in the core in these rental towers often don't have transportation costs. So it disadvantages Downtown vs. the suburbs on financing because concrete highrise construction is so much more expensive per square foot to build. I don't fully understand CMHC's formula but from what I gather the math doesn't work on concrete highrises and some conversions. Stick frame is a different storey altogether.
 
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Edmonton has had some projects like Rogers Place and the Valley Line LRT.. Even with these growth had been glacial.
 
Meanwhile...some notable DP's central/downtown.
Major Development Permit
Reference Id:Job No 504319417-002
Description:To construct exterior alterations to an exisitng Accessory Surface parking lot to develop an outdoor patio amentiy space to a multi-Use commercial building (Dental Building).
Location:10503 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NB Blk 5 Lots 65-66
Applicant:NEW AVE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CORP.
Status:In Development Review
Create Date:2024/03/21
Neighbourhood:DOWNTOWN
^I wonder if this patio is tied to Coffee Bureau?

Major Development Permit
Reference Id:Job No 502915982-006
Description:To change the use from Cannabis Retail Sales to Health Service and Convenience Retail Store [Indoor Sales and Service] and to construct interior alterations (medical clinic and pharmacy).
Location:10112C - 119 STREET NW
Plan 1525535 Unit 3
Applicant:HCL CONTRACTING LTD.
Status:In Development Review
Create Date:2024/03/12
Neighbourhood:OLIVER
 
CaptainBL said:
Which should be a shock to absolutely no one that the Mayor doesn't understand how this works.

Sohi needs to be out as mayor yesterday. This is mindset from him is exactly the type of lack of city building, lack of bold leadership, lack of vision, and demonstrated ineptitude that drives my personal opinion that he is one of, if not the worst mayor we have had in decades. Incredibly short sighted and just not even close to what downtown and the city as a whole needs right now.

A big role that governments play is assisting with making markets an appealing place to participate. When the market is tepid like downtown is, the government should be playing a role in making it attractive to investment, not scaring off any remaining interest. As the article says, developers will be happy to continue to choose outside the Henday in the burbs and/or Calgary. Bravo.
Click to expand...
I am not necessarily opposed to financial incentives to get more shovels in the ground, but I think we need to be clear what developers are asking for -- public subsidies. I would be interested in knowing what kind of advice council was getting behind closed doors. Maybe the analyses showed that incentives would only move taxable development around the city and not create net new development. Bottom line is that the city has to get something for its money and if the development community cannot clearly demonstrate there is a value-add then they shouldn't get an incentive.
 
Just a flat out no to subsidies. Increasing ROI of already profitable projects is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Incentivizing marginally feasible projects also seems like bad business. It's great council is saying no to this lobby group.
 
jason403 said:
Just a flat out no to subsidies. Increasing ROI of already profitable projects is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Incentivizing marginally feasible projects also seems like bad business. It's great council is saying no to this lobby group.
Click to expand...
So, should the City no longer provide incentive grants to land owners in Business Improvement Areas to renovate facades or build new commercial/mixed use buildings? Same thing with the Brownfield Grant for old gas station sites??

It's not rocket science in that providing some type of incentive to see more residential development downtown would result in increased tax revenues to the City....nevermind the secondary impacts it could have by increasing population density, making better use of land/existing buildings, etc.
 
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