Great to see Blatchford begin to gel! I am curious about the NAIT campus and any new buildings that will go in over the next two years?
 
A new suburban proposal for the GTA (no, not that GTA vids people) that really makes me hope that Blatchford sees success and a sense of this.
55083-167163.jpeg

https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/01...rmo-area.55083
 

This was always my "dream" use for the Blatchford space that unfortunately is not what we will see, but I'm still staying positive about what we will get!
 
SMayo said:

This was always my "dream" use for the Blatchford space that unfortunately is not what we will see, but I'm still staying positive about what we will get!
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Honestly, if it looks anything like the renders, by the final stages of the development, Blatchford will be quite cool. Different vibe, but still very nice.
 
Blatchford has the potential to be so successful! I wonder if any buyer apprehension is due to certain local naysayer politicians spreading misinformation. Considering such talk could affect market values and the City owns the land, do you think the City could legally pursue these councillors in civil court for lost revenues?
 
I don't think he is liable for criticism. I do think he is in such an influencial position that his mere words can affect City revenues, and he and other councillors should behave accordingly.
 
trevorhayden said:
Blatchford has the potential to be so successful! I wonder if any buyer apprehension is due to certain local naysayer politicians spreading misinformation. Considering such talk could affect market values and the City owns the land, do you think the City could legally pursue these councillors in civil court for lost revenues?
Click to expand...
Nah. That’s not at all how the world works.

Honestly, Blatchfords biggest problem is 1) itself. 2) westmount. 3) our downtown.

1) so little is built still. No local retail. Poorly planned LrT. Bad connectivity to surrounding areas. Ugly/sketch surroundings (kingsway/superstore). Pricey. Too car centric/lack of differentiation.

2) this is basically blatchford, but better. Same pricing. Better by 90% of measures. Better LRT access soon too.

3) there’s so much land in Oliver and downtown. So the demand for all the medium density they want to build here just doesn’t exist imo. We have thousands of units to still build and fill in better areas of our core. Nait feels like the only draw to blatchford over downtown/Oliver
 
thommyjo said:
Nah. That’s not at all how the world works.

Honestly, Blatchfords biggest problem is 1) itself. 2) westmount. 3) our downtown.

1) so little is built still. No local retail. Poorly planned LrT. Bad connectivity to surrounding areas. Ugly/sketch surroundings (kingsway/superstore). Pricey. Too car centric/lack of differentiation.

2) this is basically blatchford, but better. Same pricing. Better by 90% of measures. Better LRT access soon too.

3) there’s so much land in Oliver and downtown. So the demand for all the medium density they want to build here just doesn’t exist imo. We have thousands of units to still build and fill in better areas of our core. Nait feels like the only draw to blatchford over downtown/Oliver
Click to expand...
Definitely some truth to this, there are lots of big redevelopment pushes in the city and the cities growth isn't perhaps as astronomical as some were hoping, which doesn't help Blatchford when in its current state isn't the most desirable.

But Edmonton is still growing and bit by bit I think Blatchford will become both more desirable and more needed.
 
SMayo said:
Definitely some truth to this, there are lots of big redevelopment pushes in the city and the cities growth isn't perhaps as astronomical as some were hoping, which doesn't help Blatchford when in its current state isn't the most desirable.

But Edmonton is still growing and bit by bit I think Blatchford will become both more desirable and more needed.
Click to expand...
A project like Oakridge, Jericho lands, or the Olympic village in Vancouver all work because there’s basically no land left to develop. So doing 3-5k units of infill is quickly absorbed.

Our issue is that blatchford has sort of been built with a similar vision of dense infill, yet we have tens of thousands of other dense infill units still available to be built right next door. Not to mention thousands of dense units of housing being built in new suburbs for half the price and the commute is only a 30min difference vs the Vancouver equivalent being south Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, etc with 60-90min commutes.

I honestly think the density of our new suburbs would be better in blatchford if it meant we filled the land in the next 2 decades and stopped building wildly inefficient areas like horse hill or keswick. At this point, blatchford either will fail to be anything close to what was envisioned in the next 15 years, or it’ll moderately succeed, but likely at the expense of new projects in Oliver/Downtown and other TOD.
 
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