[Daveography]

Uncertainty over oil prices will drive Edmonton resale home prices down by 3.5 per cent in 2016, says a report by real estate company Re/max released on Thursday.

The average residential sale price for the city is forecast to be $360,379, said the Re/max Housing Market Outlook. That’s down from $373,450, the estimated average selling price for 2015.

In previous years, the average residential sale price was $367,038 in 2014, $351,000 in 2013, and $334,318 in 2012.

“The drop in oil prices has led to uncertainty in Edmonton’s housing market,” said the report.

It noted the market’s resilience during 2015 despite a sudden drop in oil prices.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

After three attempts and 10 years of struggling to find the right incentives, Edmonton’s efforts to clean up contaminated old gas stations and refuelling sites scattered throughout the city are paying off.

Six deals for major new developments in mature neighbourhoods have been signed or are close to it. Four more are in the works, said Barbara Daly, the city’s brownfield co-ordinator. That’s in addition to 15 smaller grants for exploratory work measuring the contamination that exists and one plan to change a vacant lot into a pocket park until it’s ready to be developed.

“It’s on fire,” said Daly, who once counted 50 of these vacant, contaminated corner lots in mostly high-profile locations. “These were blights on mature, livable neighbourhoods.”

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

A thin line of red tape is all that stands between a run-down strip mall in Edmonton’s southwest and a bustling community hub. Community members are hoping to change that.

“We just want to see activity. We want to see businesses that are going to encourage people in the community to support them,” said Ian Hicks, who heads up an advocacy group trying to revitalize the Petrolia Mall at 114 Street and 40 Avenue.

At one point, the mall had a full complement of tenants, including a successful Safeway and movie rental store. Safeway moved out, and a restrictive covenant left the supermarket empty and led to the rest of the mall becoming largely unoccupied as well.

When that covenant expired, a No Frills moved in and a pharmacy replaced the movie rental site. But a building that used to house a mechanic shop sits empty, keeping a full turn-around from being realized.

Recently, excitement from the community was fueled when a restaurateur expressed interest in fixing up the old shop and opening a bistro-pub.

“If this restaurant was able to move in, we’d be over the hump and this mall would be leased,” said Coun. Michael Walters, who founded the advocacy group before being elected to city council.

But the company that owns No Frills, Loblaw, says the prospective business can’t do the renovations because it violates an existing lease Loblaw has.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Calgary developer Cidex Group bought up two key Edmonton sites this week, feeding hopes an increase in outside competition will raise the bar for building design here.

“I’ve been watching the Edmonton market for years and decided to make our move,” said Abed Itani, president of Cidex Group, which just bought from the city the Five Corners site — a giant hole 10-metres deep on Jasper Avenue — and a surface parking lot off Whyte Avenue beside The Keg.

Both sales are subject to environmental and geotechnical conditions, but a deal was approved earlier this week by city council’s executive committee.

Edmonton has some interesting towers, but others aren’t much more than “a rectangle with bolted on balconies,” said Coun. Scott McKeen. He’s looking for someone to set a higher standard.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton renters on the move are cashing in on sweet end-of-summer deals.

From hundreds of dollars in rent reductions to complimentary flat-screen TVs, a growing number of landlords are offering generous incentives to attract new tenants.

A sluggish economy, combined with a glut of new properties, has forced property managers to sweeten deals, said Mark Hawkins, the owner of the apartment rental website RentFaster.ca.

"There is a lot of inventory that is coming, and there is not a lot of people coming into Alberta these days," Hawkins said during a Tuesday morning interview on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

Full Story (CBC Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

Rise in vacancies trending to long-term increase in empty Edmonton office space, new report shows
Edmonton’s office vacancy rate rose slightly from July to September to 12.9 per cent, but that is likely the start of a long-term increase in empty space, a new report indicates.

The downturn created by the drop in oil prices means vacancies will continue to grow and rents or incentives will go down because companies won’t need as much space, according to an analysis by real estate service firm Newmark Knight Frank Devencore.

Full Story (Edmonton Journal)

 

[archited]

Older, smaller office buildings should consider redeveloping as live-work condo units -- there is huge opportunity here that is being overlooked.

 

[Daveography]

@archited I agree; I hope to see this happen once Edmonton Tower and Enbridge Centre come online.

Top candidates: CN Tower, Chancery Hall, HSBC Place (rumour has it they are already looking at converting to a hotel, since their floorplates aren't conducive to office use these days).
Secondary candidates: Century Place and Enbridge Place (the black tower, not the pointy one; I could see this one going luxury hotel even).

 

[archited]

Good list @Daveography -- I think I will contact these owners and offer services. I have been doing similar work in L.A.

 

[Daveography]

Councillor wants us to re-think unused office space downtown
Expect downtown Edmonton’s vacant office towers to turn into innovative spaces in the near future — think collaborative workspaces for startups, art studios or micro-apartments.

This week, Coun. Andrew Knack will introduce a notice of motion that calls on the city to look at alternative ways Edmonton’s empty downtown tower spaces can be used.

Knack is open to all creative ideas at this point and said he wants to get a grip on the growing downtown vacancy rate so that it doesn’t hit 20 to 25 per cent — as some fear thanks to an influx of new buildings.

“It’s still going to be tough. We’re not going to be perfect,” he said. “But I’d like us to see us stop at the 20-per-cent mark.”

Full Story (Metro Edmonton)

 

[Daveography]

Edmonton has been sailing through relatively calm waters during Alberta’s economic meltdown, but there could be choppy days ahead, real estate specialist Don Campbell said Tuesday.

The capital has benefited from a stable government workforce and such major construction projects as northeast Anthony Henday Drive, Rogers Place and towers in the Ice District, said Campbell, senior analyst at the Real Estate Investment Network.

But much of the building work is finished, and deficit-laden governments won’t take on many new employees this year, which could lead to a softening economy that isn’t good for housing prices, he said.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...l-estate-market-looking-unsettled-expert-says

 

[Daveography]

Garrett Turta wants bigger events to come to Edmonton.

But, Turta says, downtown doesn’t have enough hotel space to make it happen. Yet.

“We’re lacking in the downtown core for conventions,” said Turta, general manager of the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald. “We have a lack of guest rooms to bring in large groups. If the city can’t provide enough rooms, organizations take their conferences elsewhere.”

That could all be changing. City officials cut a ribbon Monday to mark the opening of Hyatt Place Edmonton/Downtown, a new 200-plus room hotel in The Quarters.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...-map-general-manager.html?cq_ck=1485279004317

 

[Daveography]

Developer predicts another Alberta boom
Brad Lamb has big plans for Calgary and Edmonton; predicting a land-value boom to rival Toronto, he says Lamb Development Corp. is planning “five or six more high-rises in Edmonton alone over the next 20 years.”

Furthermore, the Toronto-based developer claims the economic downturn in Alberta has been “irrelevant” to the delayed build of Edmonton’s Jasper House, a 38-storey luxury condo development in the downtown core.

Developer Brad LambLAMB DEVELOPMENT CORP.
“We didn’t delay [Jasper House], it was delayed. There’s a difference. We closed on the site in February, 2014, launched sales in November, 2014, and by December, 2014, oil prices had collapsed and Alberta was headed for a recession. But we kept our sales centre open and we continued to push ahead with getting the site rezoned,” he says.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real...r-an-alberta-real-estateboom/article34109117/

 

[Marcanadian]

Good to see Lamb is committed to Edmonton. His projects are generally quite attractive, at least aesthetically.

 

[Hilman]

AIMCo Announces Acquisition of HSBC Bank Place and Enbridge Place

EDMONTON, Feb. 27, 2017 /CNW/ - Alberta Investment Management Corporation ("AIMCo"), on behalf of certain of its clients, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of HSBC Bank Place and Enbridge Place, located in Edmonton, Alberta. The transaction closed on February 27, 2017.

By investing in these two downtown office locations, AIMCo's clients gain more than 550,000 square feet of Class "A" Office space within their respective real estate portfolios. The properties are centrally located in Edmonton's Financial Core and within walking distance to the exciting new Ice District development. Significant capital improvement programs are planned for both towers to strengthen their position in the market, and to make them a location of choice for existing and new tenants eager to be a part of Edmonton's dynamic city center.

"On behalf of our clients, AIMCo is particularly pleased to make this important investment in Downtown Edmonton," states Kevin Uebelein, Chief Executive Officer at AIMCo. "For almost all of us at AIMCo, Edmonton is not only where we come to work, but the city we call home, so we have a unique perspective on the potential of this opportunity. Downtown Edmonton is undergoing many exciting changes, and we look forward to being a part of it."

http://www.newswire.ca/news-release...-bank-place-and-enbridge-place-614910924.html