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David A said:
It is unfortunate the distance to Jasper and the more severe restrictions on development vs. Banff. While it is a long drive, Hinton has a lot of potential to be developed as a tourist destination and it is a bit closer to Edmonton. Also other towns along the route need to do more with tourism upgrades to make traveling west from here more interesting. I have driven this route quite a few times and there are a number of nice small communities particularly between here and Edson, so it does not have to be a long boring drive. I think in the focus to get to Jasper a lot in between has been over looked.

For a country that talks endlessly about rail service, our current western rail service is sort of sad joke. It really needs to be improved with more frequency and other changes. For instance, the VIA station in Edmonton is not well located.

The Nordegg route idea is good also. While we can't move the mountains closer, I like these all of these more more positive ideas.
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It's baffling there isn't more done to enhance and promote, and get better frequency on the Via route. Like Edmonton actually has a passenger route to Jasper, it's not even that expensive. That alone is a tourist draw if you set it up right.
But it's not lol.

Better frequency, better speed, better transit connection, maybe extended at least a bit east to the new Blatchford station, or make use of the ROW and bring it back down to the brewery district and that new LRT station.
A little effort and a line like that could be a huge tourist boon for the whole region, instead I feel like most people don't even know it exists, what a waste!
 
JuliallThat said:
It's baffling there isn't more done to enhance and promote, and get better frequency on the Via route. Like Edmonton actually has a passenger route to Jasper, it's not even that expensive. That alone is a tourist draw if you set it up right.
But it's not lol.

Better frequency, better speed, better transit connection, maybe extended at least a bit east to the new Blatchford station, or make use of the ROW and bring it back down to the brewery district and that new LRT station.
A little effort and a line like that could be a huge tourist boon for the whole region, instead I feel like most people don't even know it exists, what a waste!
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That would be such a draw. People are surprised at the amount of foreign tourists that actually show up here in Edmonton who end up going to Jasper/Banff and we're their first stop (I've met a couple of them and am pleasantly surprised to see the amount of Germans and Austrians that pop up in our lil city). An enhanced rail connection would be such a boon for the future and its frustrating that we don't have that right now. We have all the tools and foundations, we just need some sort of federal or provincial movement on the idea and genuine financial investment on that front.
 
Kosy123 said:
That would be such a draw. People are surprised at the amount of foreign tourists that actually show up here in Edmonton who end up going to Jasper/Banff and we're their first stop (I've met a couple of them and am pleasantly surprised to see the amount of Germans and Austrians that pop up in our lil city). An enhanced rail connection would be such a boon for the future and its frustrating that we don't have that right now. We have all the tools and foundations, we just need some sort of federal or provincial movement on the idea and genuine financial investment on that front.
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We had the federal tourism minister - our own MP Randy B - for the past two years but it didn't appear to be on his radar and there is nobody around taking up the cause like a councillor or a business group.

Maybe some of the fine folks here?

By the way, anybody like that for his rap name? MP Randy B 😀
 
Kosy123 said:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-gst-rental-apartments-1.6966608

Not too sure what the effect for Edmonton would be with this policy announcement but I'm guessing positive?
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I'm guessing there's plenty of rental projects that are borderline atm, that without having to pay GST will now be worth building.
Ironically this may have a more outsized effect on our market than in cities with more constrained land use policies like Vancouver and Toronto. That's a good thing for renters though.
 
JuliallThat said:
I'm guessing there's plenty of rental projects that are borderline atm, that without having to pay GST will now be worth building.
Ironically this may have a more outsized effect on our market than in cities with more constrained land use policies like Vancouver and Toronto. That's a good thing for renters though.
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That's my train of thought as well. I'm not sure if the fact that most projects in the city and the core have been rentals has a larger positive effect for us from this policy change.

Either way, let the rentals riseeeeeeee
 
I actually do feel having more rentals downtown now is a net positive. It keeps renting in the core affordable, improves selection and adds nicer, newer housing.

The market is now more for rentals than condo's in the area, I suspect that will change eventually, but anything that attracts more people and improves selection in the meantime is a good thing.

I also wouldn't be surprised in several years if some of the rentals convert to being condos.
 
Was at the BILD conference in Banff this weekend.

ZONDA Urban had a presentation with some pretty significant findings between Edmonton and Calgary.

Multi-fam condo proposals/projects expected in the next 24 months had ~11100 units in Calgary compared to ~1500 in Edmonton.

Multi-fam rental proposals/projects exepcted in the next 24 months had ~24000 units in Calgary compared to 4500 in Edmonton.

Waiting to see if I can get a copy to share with her nice graphics, or perhaps it will be posted to their site, but the difference was staggering.

Of note, apparently there have been quite the Calgary contingents doing the Toronto circuit and pitching projects to the capital/finance world.
 
IanO said:
Was at the BILD conference in Banff this weekend.

ZONDA Urban had a presentation with some pretty significant findings between Edmonton and Calgary.

Multi-fam condo proposals/projects expected in the next 24 months had ~11100 units in Calgary compared to ~1500 in Edmonton.

Multi-fam rental proposals/projects exepcted in the next 24 months had ~24000 units in Calgary compared to 4500 in Edmonton.

Waiting to see if I can get a copy to share with her nice graphics, or perhaps it will be posted to their site, but the difference was staggering.

Of note, apparently there have been quite the Calgary contingents doing the Toronto circuit and pitching projects to the capital/finance world.
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Shhhhhh...dont tell this to the "Edmonton's doing just fine" crowd.

The simple fact is that more people are moving to Calgary because there are more jobs, investment and opportunities, and thus there is more of a need for single family homes, condo, and multifamily rentals.

While Edmonton's single family home market is doing well and on par with Calgary's new builds, this continues to hammer home the point that Edmonton's (especially downtown's) condo market is flaccid, and our rental stock is not needed in the same level of demand because we do not have the same number of people moving here.

The numbers support this, the analysts and reports and market experts support this. It is what it is.

Edmonton is truly missing a once in a generation opportunity.
 
CaptainBL said:
Shhhhhh...dont tell this to the "Edmonton's doing just fine" crowd.

The simple fact is that more people are moving to Calgary because there are more jobs, investment and opportunities, and thus there is more of a need for single family homes, condo, and multifamily rentals.

While Edmonton's single family home market is doing well and on par with Calgary's new builds, this continues to hammer home the point that Edmonton's (especially downtown's) condo market is flaccid, and our rental stock is not needed in the same level of demand because we do not have the same number of people moving here.

The numbers support this, the analysts and reports and market experts support this. It is what it is.

Edmonton is truly missing a once in a generation opportunity.
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Edmonton has very few developers that know what they're doing regarding high rise rental builds. Everything that is of quality, in a nice neighbourhood (Oliver, Garneau) has had success. I've had people tell me that they want to move into the Hendrix, for example.

Edmonton's high rise condo demand isn't there, and it really shouldn't be. There are countless gravel parking lots that could be missing middle, loft style condos or even row housing. I'd drop 400-500k on one, but nobody is building anything like this, or even proposing it. It becomes a chicken or the egg type deal.

The demand for housing is great enough to fill every downtown lot in Edmonton within 10 years. City council isn't willing to do the things that will accomplish this. I'm thinking the end of hourly/monthly surface lot permits, substantial completion standard, and property tax holidays for builds that meet a certain density.

The fact that I can't even buy what I want in this city, regardless of price says alot to me.
 
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