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This is confusing. I wonder if the other building with very similar name quietly gave it up at some point on its meandering from a residential building to an office building then perhaps back, and just didn't tell anyone.
 
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Lot that used to have an old SFH about to become rowhouses just off Whyte Ave.
 
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Residents in the area of this large lot just north west of macewan were sent notices by the city that Westrich is applying to subdivide it, the limited plans I saw in a friends notice showed the footprints of 3 buildings that are likely typical 6 story builds
 
View attachment 629443Residents in the area of this large lot just north west of macewan were sent notices by the city that Westrich is applying to subdivide it, the limited plans I saw in a friends notice showed the footprints of 3 buildings that are likely typical 6 story builds
That's so exciting! I live nearby and noticed some grading happening in the fall; I was hoping it might be an indication for some movement on this site. It really sticks out like a sore thumb with all those new buildings around it, and three new apartment buildings will add some wonderful vibrancy to the area. I often see kids playing on the sculpture thing the city installed at that car-free zone of 105 Ave (the ground is composed of rubber matting, so the city definitely intended for kids to climb it), so hopefully these buildings have some 3-bedroom units to allow even more families to live here.

@IanO Is Westrich looking at this property at all? It's been for sale for a while now. If you guys did this on top of the Atco site, it'd almost complete 105 Ave all the way to 109 Street, and also be right in time for the Valley Line. Plus, it's across the street from Mainstreet's office, so that'd he one heck of a power move ;)

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^When someone reacts to a story like that with a "sad face" emoji, what is going on in your mind, out of curiosity?
Some folks just don't value heritage buildings unless they're really impressive looking. A good friend of mine, in all sincerity, thought a better use of the Army & Navy building on Whyte Ave would be a parking lot "to bring more people to the area and get rid of a useless old building." His first preference was a nice new building there, but preferred parking over the old building. We had a fun argument on that one, haha. Just different opinions out there.
 
Some folks just don't value heritage buildings unless they're really impressive looking. A good friend of mine, in all sincerity, thought a better use of the Army & Navy building on Whyte Ave would be a parking lot "to bring more people to the area and get rid of a useless old building." His first preference was a nice new building there, but preferred parking over the old building. We had a fun argument on that one, haha. Just different opinions out there.
ONE! MORE! LANE!
 
Some folks just don't value heritage buildings unless they're really impressive looking. A good friend of mine, in all sincerity, thought a better use of the Army & Navy building on Whyte Ave would be a parking lot "to bring more people to the area and get rid of a useless old building." His first preference was a nice new building there, but preferred parking over the old building. We had a fun argument on that one, haha. Just different opinions out there.
I remember years ago when United Cycle moved and left a fairly large building empty for a while, but it was nicely split up into several smaller spaces which worked well.

The Army & Navy building was designed as a retail space on a retail street and it seems like the new owners understand something similar could work well for it too. We can successfully reuse and adapt older buildings.
 
A 7 school package was awarded on Friday. Another package of 5 is coming later this spring. I believe Edmonton is getting 3.
I've heard through the grapevine that these are not particularly desirable contracts, because the RFP respondent needs to commit to building the infrastructure of several schools across multiple communities. You can't just work on one of the projects, you have to finish every part of the "school bundle".

IMO it's high-risk low-reward. It reduces competition in the tendering process because SME's don't usually have the scale for project bundles of this size (higher costs) and it puts the entire process on one provider (high risk). This is compounding with the fact that GoA contracts are exempt from Prompt Payment and Lien Legislation, so if a contract winner goes belly-up because the GoA isn't paying, they're out of luck.
 
That is the AI way. The last package my firm did had 2 schools in Edmonton 1 in Leduc , Blackfalds and outside Calgary. This one had 3 in Edmonton the rest in calgary or small town alberta. Next package will be the same.

This first package has to have ground work started this fall.

You have to put a consortium together. It was tough for the subs but the GCs also have to have a lot of people. We only have so many subs that are big enough for 2 schools let alone 7. When I was with Stantec we did 5 with Clark. But it was done as an assembly line type project. Teams would move from one project to the next. the last package I worked on was a bit of a scramble because the Province wanted all the schools ready at the same time. At the time there were 35 school either being built or renovated.so we were tight for trades. Just based on what I'm seeing and the work coming down the pipe we will be stressed for trades.
 
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