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PROPERTY REPORT: DOWNTOWN CANADA
When shiny offices conceal a wasteland
Planners say variety is key to a vital downtown, a lesson Calgary has learned the hard way
MELISSA DUNNE
Special to The Globe and Mail
April 29, 2008
From a distance, the shimmering skyscrapers and shorter brick buildings in downtown Calgary fold into each other, blocking out the blue sky in between. The city's core is stacked with office buildings - and cranes are erecting more.
As robust and encouraging as this appears, some planners and developers are concerned the city might be getting too carried away with office-building, and are eager to spice things up.
Like Canada's other major urban cores - Toronto, Vancouver and, to a lesser degree, Montreal - Calgary has been enjoying rapid economic growth. Fuelled by the energy boom, the city, with 47.8 million square feet of office stock, is set to add 9.6 million square feet of new office space by mid-2011, according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
But it's been down this road before and doesn't want to hit a dead end as happened 15 years ago, when an energy bust was quickly followed by a real estate bust, and a subsequent flight to the suburbs.
"People still think of big cities in terms of their downtowns," says David Neill, president of Encorp Management Inc., which is converting three buildings into a fashion Mecca for downtown Calgary.
"Downtown is the heart of a city, it's where the cultural things are, where most of the commerce goes on, generally they are walkable places."
Diversity of function is certainly key, agrees Igal Charney, a professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who has researched the health of Canadian downtowns.
Big-city downtowns have survived relatively intact and buoyant by maintaining a mix of residential, commercial, institutional and entertainment property uses, he says. "The trend definitely is toward building fun zones, or urban playgrounds."
Calgary knows all too well that relying too much on one sector is not good. In the seventies, a major oil boom sparked "massive office development" downtown, recalls Thom Mahler, the co-ordinator of Centre City planning and design policy for Calgary.
Then, the bottom fell out: The office market crashed with the oil bust of the mid-1980s. The national real estate bust hit in the early 1990s, when a number of big developers went under.
Meanwhile, downtown Calgary became an area that prompted people to flee to the suburbs, for a number of complicated factors: Pedestrian-unfriendly one-way streets; a system of walkways one storey above street level that made sidewalks seem deserted; non-descript class-B office buildings; high crime; and thousands of homeless people.
"Fifteen years ago, downtown Calgary was quite deserted after 7 p.m.," says Greg Kwong, Alberta managing director for CBRE. "In the past few years, there has been a change: There are bars and some nightlife going on."
With Calgary in the midst of another economic boom, the city seems to have learned from past mistakes.
It's Centre City plan, approved by council last year, is a 20-year-plus initiative with no specific amount of money that aims to keep the downtown healthy.
"We are moving away from just having offices in the core," Mr. Mahler says. "We are looking to have mixed-use neighbourhoods that can be self-sustaining."
The comprehensive plan aims to add up to 40,000 residents to the core by 2035, while maintaining and adding public spaces, such as the $50-million addition to the Calgary Stampede's Roundup Centre to transform it into a year-round attraction, featuring an exhibition hall, connection to the casino under construction, and a walkway to public transit.
Currently, about 30,000 of Calgary's one million population lives downtown, according to the city. If that sound paltry, it is: More than 80,000 people live in downtown Vancouver, with 5,086 people per square kilometre compared with Calgary's 1,360 in 2006, according to the Calgary Foundation Vital Signs report card.
"You don't want your downtown to only be alive from nine to five," says Kevin Stolarick, an urban theorist who works closely with University of Toronto social urbanist Richard Florida. "To really bring a downtown to life, you need people living there all the time to make it an interesting place to be."
Calgary plans to transform the "troubled" East Village area, known for crime, shelters and a homelessness problem, by working with local stakeholders to diversify the area, Mr. Mahler says.
Canada's three other big cities are also in the midst of trying to clean up areas notorious for crime and poverty - Toronto's Regent Park, the downtown Eastside in Vancouver and Montreal's Griffintown.
But it's a fine balancing act: As big-city cores become gentrified, they risk losing their grit and diversity, observers say.
"Holt Renfrew is expanding in downtown Calgary - that is a strong signal of success," Mr. Mahler says. "Things are more expensive in the cores, some independent stores are finding it hard - that's the struggle, we can't control what businesses survive, but we want to keep a local flavour and diversity."
Having a downtown that has something for everyone - lower-income housing, schools for children, grocery stores, cafés and cultural venues - is what makes a downtown great, contends Mr. Toderian, Vancouver's director of city planning.
While there is nothing wrong with catering to the creative class, cities should not give up on "real urbanism," he adds. "Building downtowns that are urban playgrounds are the new quick fixes. They really don't fix anything."
Over the next few decades, finding a balance that keeps downtowns vibrant and inclusive will be a challenge for developers and city councils.
Even if Canada's large urban areas meet those challenges, it seems unlikely any will become an alpha, or full-service, world city such as Tokyo, London and Paris, Mr. Kwong suggests.
"The overgrowth in Calgary is being compared to Dubai," he says. "But we're not really an international city like Dubai or Kuala Lumpur. Things are on a different scale there - I mean they are building indoor ski hills in Dubai."
DOWNTOWN STRATEGY: MAKING IT FASHIONABLE
In an ocean of offices, David Neill is creating an island of creativity. The long-time Calgary developer is in the midst of an estimated $4-million restoration of three historic downtown buildings. The project, dubbed Fashion Central, will house local designer studios and boutiques inside and international retailers on the street front.
Mr. Neill has had success with a similar project, called Art Central, which transformed a rundown complex in downtown Calgary into a 38,000-square-foot collective of more than 50 galleries, studios, shops and cafés in 2003.
"I held on to the [Fashion Central] property for 10 years waiting for the opportune time to redevelop it," he says. "There is a growing community of fashion designers in Calgary, but few outlets for them. I almost regret announcing this development so early because local designers are so eager to get in they keep calling asking me when it's going to be ready."
The development, which will house about 24 retailers in 30,000 square feet of space, is slated to be ready for occupancy from spring 2008 to fall 2009.
So why are there not more developers in big cities taking on interesting projects that preserve historic buildings, support the local community and infuse a downtown street with renewed vigour?
"What I do is time consuming, small scale and expensive to do," Mr. Neill says. "There is an appetite for something different ... but most big developers [in Calgary] are only interested in building offices." Melissa Dunne
Next week
Toronto's former condo king seeks a new realm: Helping to revitalize downtown Hamilton
PROPERTY REPORT: DOWNTOWN CANADA
When shiny offices conceal a wasteland
Planners say variety is key to a vital downtown, a lesson Calgary has learned the hard way
MELISSA DUNNE
Special to The Globe and Mail
April 29, 2008
From a distance, the shimmering skyscrapers and shorter brick buildings in downtown Calgary fold into each other, blocking out the blue sky in between. The city's core is stacked with office buildings - and cranes are erecting more.
As robust and encouraging as this appears, some planners and developers are concerned the city might be getting too carried away with office-building, and are eager to spice things up.
Like Canada's other major urban cores - Toronto, Vancouver and, to a lesser degree, Montreal - Calgary has been enjoying rapid economic growth. Fuelled by the energy boom, the city, with 47.8 million square feet of office stock, is set to add 9.6 million square feet of new office space by mid-2011, according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
But it's been down this road before and doesn't want to hit a dead end as happened 15 years ago, when an energy bust was quickly followed by a real estate bust, and a subsequent flight to the suburbs.
"People still think of big cities in terms of their downtowns," says David Neill, president of Encorp Management Inc., which is converting three buildings into a fashion Mecca for downtown Calgary.
"Downtown is the heart of a city, it's where the cultural things are, where most of the commerce goes on, generally they are walkable places."
Diversity of function is certainly key, agrees Igal Charney, a professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, who has researched the health of Canadian downtowns.
Big-city downtowns have survived relatively intact and buoyant by maintaining a mix of residential, commercial, institutional and entertainment property uses, he says. "The trend definitely is toward building fun zones, or urban playgrounds."
Calgary knows all too well that relying too much on one sector is not good. In the seventies, a major oil boom sparked "massive office development" downtown, recalls Thom Mahler, the co-ordinator of Centre City planning and design policy for Calgary.
Then, the bottom fell out: The office market crashed with the oil bust of the mid-1980s. The national real estate bust hit in the early 1990s, when a number of big developers went under.
Meanwhile, downtown Calgary became an area that prompted people to flee to the suburbs, for a number of complicated factors: Pedestrian-unfriendly one-way streets; a system of walkways one storey above street level that made sidewalks seem deserted; non-descript class-B office buildings; high crime; and thousands of homeless people.
"Fifteen years ago, downtown Calgary was quite deserted after 7 p.m.," says Greg Kwong, Alberta managing director for CBRE. "In the past few years, there has been a change: There are bars and some nightlife going on."
With Calgary in the midst of another economic boom, the city seems to have learned from past mistakes.
It's Centre City plan, approved by council last year, is a 20-year-plus initiative with no specific amount of money that aims to keep the downtown healthy.
"We are moving away from just having offices in the core," Mr. Mahler says. "We are looking to have mixed-use neighbourhoods that can be self-sustaining."
The comprehensive plan aims to add up to 40,000 residents to the core by 2035, while maintaining and adding public spaces, such as the $50-million addition to the Calgary Stampede's Roundup Centre to transform it into a year-round attraction, featuring an exhibition hall, connection to the casino under construction, and a walkway to public transit.
Currently, about 30,000 of Calgary's one million population lives downtown, according to the city. If that sound paltry, it is: More than 80,000 people live in downtown Vancouver, with 5,086 people per square kilometre compared with Calgary's 1,360 in 2006, according to the Calgary Foundation Vital Signs report card.
"You don't want your downtown to only be alive from nine to five," says Kevin Stolarick, an urban theorist who works closely with University of Toronto social urbanist Richard Florida. "To really bring a downtown to life, you need people living there all the time to make it an interesting place to be."
Calgary plans to transform the "troubled" East Village area, known for crime, shelters and a homelessness problem, by working with local stakeholders to diversify the area, Mr. Mahler says.
Canada's three other big cities are also in the midst of trying to clean up areas notorious for crime and poverty - Toronto's Regent Park, the downtown Eastside in Vancouver and Montreal's Griffintown.
But it's a fine balancing act: As big-city cores become gentrified, they risk losing their grit and diversity, observers say.
"Holt Renfrew is expanding in downtown Calgary - that is a strong signal of success," Mr. Mahler says. "Things are more expensive in the cores, some independent stores are finding it hard - that's the struggle, we can't control what businesses survive, but we want to keep a local flavour and diversity."
Having a downtown that has something for everyone - lower-income housing, schools for children, grocery stores, cafés and cultural venues - is what makes a downtown great, contends Mr. Toderian, Vancouver's director of city planning.
While there is nothing wrong with catering to the creative class, cities should not give up on "real urbanism," he adds. "Building downtowns that are urban playgrounds are the new quick fixes. They really don't fix anything."
Over the next few decades, finding a balance that keeps downtowns vibrant and inclusive will be a challenge for developers and city councils.
Even if Canada's large urban areas meet those challenges, it seems unlikely any will become an alpha, or full-service, world city such as Tokyo, London and Paris, Mr. Kwong suggests.
"The overgrowth in Calgary is being compared to Dubai," he says. "But we're not really an international city like Dubai or Kuala Lumpur. Things are on a different scale there - I mean they are building indoor ski hills in Dubai."
DOWNTOWN STRATEGY: MAKING IT FASHIONABLE
In an ocean of offices, David Neill is creating an island of creativity. The long-time Calgary developer is in the midst of an estimated $4-million restoration of three historic downtown buildings. The project, dubbed Fashion Central, will house local designer studios and boutiques inside and international retailers on the street front.
Mr. Neill has had success with a similar project, called Art Central, which transformed a rundown complex in downtown Calgary into a 38,000-square-foot collective of more than 50 galleries, studios, shops and cafés in 2003.
"I held on to the [Fashion Central] property for 10 years waiting for the opportune time to redevelop it," he says. "There is a growing community of fashion designers in Calgary, but few outlets for them. I almost regret announcing this development so early because local designers are so eager to get in they keep calling asking me when it's going to be ready."
The development, which will house about 24 retailers in 30,000 square feet of space, is slated to be ready for occupancy from spring 2008 to fall 2009.
So why are there not more developers in big cities taking on interesting projects that preserve historic buildings, support the local community and infuse a downtown street with renewed vigour?
"What I do is time consuming, small scale and expensive to do," Mr. Neill says. "There is an appetite for something different ... but most big developers [in Calgary] are only interested in building offices." Melissa Dunne
Next week
Toronto's former condo king seeks a new realm: Helping to revitalize downtown Hamilton
