[SarcasticMarmot]

Would someone be able to provide a short breakdown as to how we got to this current state with Rossdale and why it is sitting empty? Is it the city or province that owns this? Has there ever been any concrete proposals or at least talk of activating this historical building? Apologies for asking this as I'm not from Edmonton and always wanted to do an in-depth examination on this topic but never really got around to it.

A friend of mine was part of the city team that was working on this project a few years ago. The way he framed it to me was that it was caught in a pickle. The city wants to recoup the money it spent stabilizing the building (10+ million) and the cost to make the building a usable space was approaching 100 million (this article from 2013 cites it at $87 million https://nationaltrustcanada.ca/nt-endangered-places/rossdale-power-plant). That is a high cost for a spot that has limited access and is trapped between the water treatment plant, electrical infrastructure, the river, and an Indigenous burial ground. He told me there were lots of cool ideas, but no one was showing up with the money.

One of the climbing gym owners I know looked into it (would be one hell of a climbing gym!) but the business case was hilariously bad, he couldn't make it remotely work even if the city gave it to him for free. Its a hard nut to crack to be profitable, and I don't think Edmonton voters would support the idea of spending $100m on a cool market. Unless another level of government steps in I think this building is gonna sit mostly empty for years, and the province has plenty of other spaces they need to deal with (RAM, Remand, etc.). Pretty much any project of that size would rather build their own building from scratch.

IMO, the city should return the building to Epcor and mandate that they make it useful again as a community building project.

 

[scyeg]

A friend of mine was part of the city team that was working on this project a few years ago. The way he framed it to me was that it was caught in a pickle. The city wants to recoup the money it spent stabilizing the building (10+ million) and the cost to make the building a usable space was approaching 100 million (this article from 2013 cites it at $87 million https://nationaltrustcanada.ca/nt-endangered-places/rossdale-power-plant). That is a high cost for a spot that has limited access and is trapped between the water treatment plant, electrical infrastructure, the river, and an Indigenous burial ground. He told me there were lots of cool ideas, but no one was showing up with the money.

One of the climbing gym owners I know looked into it (would be one hell of a climbing gym!) but the business case was hilariously bad, he couldn't make it remotely work even if the city gave it to him for free. Its a hard nut to crack to be profitable, and I don't think Edmonton voters would support the idea of spending $100m on a cool market. Unless another level of government steps in I think this building is gonna sit mostly empty for years, and the province has plenty of other spaces they need to deal with (RAM, Remand, etc.). Pretty much any project of that size would rather build their own building from scratch.

IMO, the city should return the building to Epcor and mandate that they make it useful again as a community building project.

Gondola.

 

[CaptainBL]

Gondola.

The City pitched "The Edmonton Project", asked for unique ideas to make this city a better place, selected the gondola as the winning idea, then shut it down instead of seeing how a solution could be found to the challenges the city, the project, and the developer faced.

That's all you need to know. So given the city's track record, and current no vision nor priority with this building, I am not hopeful anything happens in the next decade.

 

[JNO1]

"This building is going to sit empty for years". Now THIS is the most Edmonton thing you can do.

 

[northlands]

Imagine the City partners with a competent developer (Beljan) on Pumphouse 2 for a cafe with a patio overlooking the river and Walterdale.

 

[Gronk!]

Imagine the City partners with a competent developer (Beljan) on Pumphouse 2 for a cafe with a patio overlooking the river and Walterdale.

View attachment 580026

That would be cool, although I`d like to see what Beljan can do with the Rossdale Plant, given the limitations of the building.

 

[David A]

Ironically, the building itself probably does not have that much in terms of limitations. It is a big space that could be adapted for a number of uses. Of course it is old and requires work.

However, I don't think keeping the costs of this under control is something the city excels at, so this is part of the reason I feel it should be a private sector project initiative.

It may be a bit of a big project for Beljan, but yes someone like them who is creative, financially competent and likes working with older spaces.