[Surrealplaces]

I like all that was done with 7th ave, especially the new stations, they are 100 times better. What I would like to see if more retail, but I know it's easier said than done. Where the York used to be and the new 'supposed' park is, would be great for a box wood cafe type place. Also there's an empty patch of grass at 6th street and 7th ave that would make a nice little public place for a kiosk and patio.

I don't think 7th ave needs to supersede, as MichaelS mentioned it is the main show street, but 7th is one that is heavily used and can be better without a lot of money. I think it just needs some ideas that are a bit of thinking out of the box.

 

[Colinfill]

Speaking of Stephen Ave, I noticed that Scotia Bank on the corner of 2nd Street is empty now. Does anyone know if they're just doing renovations or is this potential space going to be up for lease now?

 

[Beltline_B]

True about the finance dollars, but vacancy would play some part. If the vacancy rate was 10% and stagnant it could affect a project being out on hold.

Finance money is the big one, and it may seem endless, but there’s only so much and the folks investing still have to decide where to put it. A high vacancy rate could mean investing in another city instead.

It's all relative. Vacancy alone doesn't have much of impact. Vacancy is short term and these are long term investments. First and foremost, is access to investment dollars earmarked for income generating properties. Real estate investment is as popular as ever. Second, is probably the new regulations in Ontario that is driving more of those investment dollars to Alberta. A half dozen projects proposed as one owner owning all the units and renting them out have already switched over to selling the units individually.

 

[Joborule]

City of Calgary's 'well-loved' Stephen Avenue up for a facelift – and the options are endless (open liquor anyone?)

https://www.metronews.ca/news/calga...p-for-repair-and-the-options-are-endless.html

So what would you do?

Some good suggestions posted. Along with those, I would like to see Stephen Ave pedestrian street stretch from city hall to Fort Calgary. With the new library opening up, and then opening up city hall to allow people to walk through the building, that'll make it a 2km pedestrian corridor. Ultimately, it could even go up to the Mewata Armoury.

 

[darwink]

2.6% is low and 4.9% overall is low. Both represent below healthy churn - lots of apartments are being rented out immediately after the last tenant leaves. A healthy market to build in if the rents are close to generating an acceptable rate of return.

 

[Habanero]

I would like to see Stephen Ave stretch further west also. It would be nice to get it to at least 8th street, which is probably the busiest north-south corridor in the core pedestrian wise.

 

[darwink]

I would like to see Stephen Ave stretch further west also. It would be nice to get it to at least 8th street, which is probably the busiest north-south corridor in the core pedestrian wise.

I think the best one could do since there are numerous parkades would be to make it one way, west bound, two lanes, with one being parking after 6 pm.

 

[maestro]

I beg to differ. 2.6% is not low and 4.6% is actually on the high side for the Canadian market. The rate of return on rental income is pathetic too despite record high rental rates. The expectations here are that property values will continue to rise or the option to sell off the units to pay off capital expenditure when systems reach end of life and require replacing down the road. Most of these buildings are being built as condo with the exception of one owner owning all the suites and renting them out. Of course, foreign dollars parking money in Canadian real estate has its role in the rental housing boom across Canada too. The large Canadian real estate income funds are loaded with foreign investors.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

I wonder why Calgary, specifically, is seeing such a large rental construction boom. I'd imagine it's probably the largest per capita among Canadian municipalities.

 

[Surrealplaces]

A couple more shots of Calgary's downtown and Beltline. Very much in the brown of winter, but you can see in theses shots, that some color is making its way into the skyline.


Calgary skyline panorama by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Calgary skyline panorama by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Another shot of the core, but from a better angle showing off the density in a big way. I thought the core looked pretty dense in my pics and then I saw this one.
https://twitter.com/DuchaineChris

 

[CBBarnett]

I wonder why Calgary, specifically, is seeing such a large rental construction boom. I'd imagine it's probably the largest per capita among Canadian municipalities.

Calgary currently has the lowest percentage of renters v. Owners of any large Canadian city. “Reversion to the mean” is probably too simplified of an expression for this kind of thing, but I would be interested to know more about how purpose-built rental economics work and what is changing: both in short term from the developer perspective (what’s triggering them now rather than 5 years ago or 5 years from now), and from a Calgary perspective (is there something about the size, demographics, economy of the city that is driving this now rather than later) . Can we expect Calgary to transition to something more “normal” of a Canadian city over time? Or did the factors that created such a low rental rate likely to persist?

 

[darwink]

I wonder why Calgary, specifically, is seeing such a large rental construction boom. I'd imagine it's probably the largest per capita among Canadian municipalities.

New hires and early career professionals here still make highest average salaries I believe, and the mortgage rules makes it harder for them to get into owned units rapidly. Plus lower construction costs, less policy risk (clear development rules). Still a substantial gap between 'luxury rentals' (those with laundry and dishwashers and granite or equivalent) and units for sale on the monthly carrying cost too.

Calgary also has a low number of rentals due to those factors above (besides income) being the opposite for years. And while the low vacancy might not be low comparatively, it is low relative to what a competitive market is.

So perfect storm.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I have heard through the grapevine that companies in other cities that back these rental projects are very bullish on Calgary. It'll be interesting to see how many we see get built. Rental vacancy rate is decent, and units are getting absorbed, so there may be room for a few more towers yet.

Right now four projects on the go (Residence Inn ,Underwood, The Hat and West village Towers) combining for 1, 321 new units. According to the CMHC stats almost all of the 800 odd units in new generation towers opened since 2015 have been absorbed. With three of the four u/c projects still a couple of years out from occupancy, the vacancy rate should be a fair bit lower by 2019, and those units could be absorbed quickly.....if things continue on as they are. If 500 block goes ahead as it looks to be, there's still room for more projects to go ahead.

 

[Mountain Man]

I think it depends on the economy and how many people move here in the next few years. Despite the downturn we are still growing at a healthy rate, and I only expect that to pick up.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Very true. Considering all this has been happening in a downturn, who knows what could happen if we see an upturn. Not just that but statistically speaking, every year about 12,000 people turn into adults. Not all them will move out of their parents place, and not all of them will move to the core, but that's a good number of new adults that keep recurring every year, and as Darwink pointed out mortgages are tougher to get for young adults. We could see trend of rental towers for a while yet.