Regina | Capital Pointe | 29F | 11F | 91M | ?M | Cancelled
 

A project of this magnitude deserves a thread of its own. I think this is just the first of many great projects for Regina's downtown, add to this the new stadium, the downtown plan, the central library revitilization, Victoria Park revitilization, and the proposed office towers means nothing but great things ahead for downtown Regina!!!

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1494/1882705bin.jpg

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[QUOTE=Migs;4401408]A project of this magnitude deserves a thread of its own. I think this is just the first of many great projects for Regina's downtown, add to this the new stadium, the downtown plan, the central library revitilization, Victoria Park revitilization, and the proposed office towers means nothing but great things ahead for downtown Regina!!!

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1494/1882705bin.jpg[/QUOTE

Not bad overall...
 

It would be nice to see the tower twice as tall, but that might not be realistic given the market in Regina. Although the economy is 'booming' in Regina terms, it takes pretty high land values to offset the cost of higher construction. I'm glad they are incorporating the weather tower, but I'd rather see it on top of the mid-rise element rather than in a niche as presented. It almost looks like they are keeping it on top of the existing building and adding floors on top of that, but I doubt the existing hotel has the structural capacity to add floors.

I'd also like to see them retain the glass enclosed staircase with the triangular (semi-geodesic) windows. I remember when...

Anyone care to speculate on pricing and size of the condos?

I don't care what they do with the Plains as long as they save that weather tower! I love that thing!

I still laugh when I see the sign for their sushi restaraunt-kinda screams food poisoning to me!

No actual prices or sizes, but the article does say this:

I guess it depends on their idea of "cost-conscious".

Looks great!

It looks fantastic, I can't wait to see the wrecking ball move in and take care of the Plains. It is great that they plan on saving that neon weather tower. Migs do you have any pictures of the Plains on your blog?

Just a couple I think. Its such an eyesore that its pretty rare I find it worth photographing.

http://reginainpictures.blogspot.com...-50-years.html

http://reginainpictures.blogspot.com...corner-of.html

anyone know if this could make a dent in our skyline? Im thinking it will

I would guess it depends which way you are coming in from. I think I counted 19 floors?

Well, I was hoping it would make a bump out from our skyline ... :P

This is great news! I hope more projects like this come about to increase the population density of downtown and surrounding area enough to make possible amenities like a local supermarket, indoor farmers market, entertainment, etc.! Those would be value added to downtown to attract even more residents, business clients, tourists, etc.!

Yaa ... Some of the older buildings have cockroaches in them, like the one my wife's sister lived in downtown (it's even a nice, higher-end, apartment suites building! The suite she was living in was provided to her by her company, over several years!) before her company moved her back to T.O. Not an infestation, but a few occasional, sporadic encounters. (Boy! Those things can move fast! :runaway: ) That idea scares my wife, who formerly dormed at U of T, downtown, and had similar experiences, as is so common in certain places of T.O. and almost any other established neighbourhoods -- so we steer clear! Mind you, that restaurant seems like a popular place with some younger set of people (my nephew and his highschool buddies)! I hope I didn't fill you young'n's minds with too much info! :D

[QUOTE=A4Regina;4402628]anyone know if this could make a dent in our skyline? Im thinking it will[/QUO

Here's a new article from the leader post.

I recently went to a party and they had take out from the Sushi Bank and it was awesome. Super-fresh and well presented.

Heres a question kind of related to this project...knowing that there is supposedly a credit crunch right now globally, could a credit union finance a project of this magnitude? Or any major office tower that could take shape in our city?

Unlikely, but it might be possible for them to syndicate the loan (i.e. split it among other credit unions or lenders). Most credit unions will not lend more than $15 million to a single client without syndication. THe hotel and condos are likely to be financed separately.

I guess some folks aren't not too supportive of new stuff.

http://prairiedogmag.blogspot.com/20...f-i-tried.html

a local developer

Surprise surprise. Some on Riderfans.com already predicted this would happen.

http://www.newstalk980.com/story/20090814/20930

A very nice looking building. :tup:

I always thought that intersection deserved some nicer buildings.

it looks like the condo will be 62 meters in height

62 m seems a little low for a 19 storey building. City hall is 63 m and is 16 storeys. SGI building is 79 m and is 20 storeys. It really is a good looking project. It's going to bring a lot more life to that intersection.

office towers are always a couple of feet higher than condos or apt towers

Looks good guys. That will be a fine addition to the downtown. I like the hotel portion more than the tower portion - although, that is judging strictly from the render. Get it done!

Residential 8 ft ceilings vs commercial 10 ft ceilings.

here are some more documents with info on the plaza, including floor plans and building heights.
I can't make out the numbers clearly, but i think the tower tops out at 208 feet.

That's a good looking development, hopefully there isn't as many hoops to jump through as there is with River Landing in S'toon.

I hope it goes through.

Unlike Migs or Darthrider some people probably are losing a place with a lot of history and value to them. So I'm not surprised someone's upset when their hangout is being knocked over.

That said, I have no relationship to the plains, and feel this is a good prospect for downtown. I'm a little suspect of claims that this will change Regina forever or this is the be all-end all project. It will be a good project for downtown. I think the height of the tower is fine, it certainly doesn't need to be any taller. I would like to see the tower perhaps placed on a pedistal of the 4-5 story base and situated to the centre or NE so there is some seperation between towers on the that east side. Overall I like the concept, the style of the building is quite modern (new) and so that's pleasing and I hope it appears soon.

One little concern in the rendering, the perspective makes that intersection look much larger than it is. I'm not sure in reality how a large tower will look from the intersection, especially with the buildings around it. I'm not saying it will be bad, I just can't see it clearly in my imagination. Also the view is from somewhere in the vitarra building and they seem to have replaced that building with a tree and grass. It will be nice to see more finished renderings in the future.

is there only one rendering of this project thus far? maybe it would make a difference and would give better perspecftive if there was a rendering from the other side, or looking from cuets building. ?

Maybe from space, that would be an interesting rendering. :shrug:

Interesting how the rendering also makes Albert and Vic look like a spacious intersection with open, green lawns on the west side... no pesky Viterra building or the one on the NW (forget what it is, used to be a Co-Op).

according to a site

It'll block the sun.

LOL .... what will the poor saps at the gas station across the street do?

Nothing...they're on the south side. Their sun will be fine. :)

Anybody have an idea what the condos will cost? Any guesses? More or less than $400/sq.' ?

I like your pictures.

very nice

interesting how the TD Bank Building looks to be part of the Canada Life Building

We went to this. It was not a real focus group of any kind, although it was unclear if the people running it know what real focus groups are. It resembled more a real estate early sales cycle meeting.

The concept of a 25 story condo apartment tower sharing costs and facilities with a hotel seems quite smart. It allows the advertised maintenance fee to be lower, with residents paying extra for amenties they use and avoiding paying for those they don't.

There are so many overlapping facility possibilities that I found the whole idea pretty exciting. Why buy that extra bedroom for your once a year guests if you have connected access to hotel room for those inlaws? Why pay a 24 hour doorman for your condo when the hotel already has desk clerks?

And what about having built-in access to laundry and maid services? That helps the hotel rationalize their staff and the tenants would get discount access to reliable services.

I can see potential for issues such as when visitors swarm the place during Grey Cup and Agribition, mucking up the gym and the halls. But it would be a small inconvenience compared to having cost shared facilities the rest of the time.

They appear to be giving strong consideration to geothermal and some consideration to different LEEDS levels.

The survey was really a pretense rather than genuine interest in getting input. Someone did ask about the Gardens on Rose project and the developers had never heard of it. The boss/leader then piped in and said "We actually don't want to be tainted by any uninformed local opinions on past failures."

I looked over quick to see if he was joking because of the strong language, but he was actually serious. I chuckled to myself since he was pretty much outwardly admitting they actually had no interest in local feedback.

The first survey question was what style of building is preferred, but they later revealed the style had already been determined. It was like that with several things.

Another example is they asked questions about things that are easily chosen on the final week before possession... things like what kitchen faucet you prefer.

The survey looked a bit generic, possibly used for other projects perhaps and then customized for this one.

It was a bit strange they had floor plans with prices but emphasized to just ignore the prices. Thinking about it afterward, if they didn't want the prices to be considered it would have been simple to erase them.

A one bedroom 500 sq foot unit was $200,000 ranging up to 1200 sq foot (?) for $600,000. This is just going off memory though.

They were offering $2000 discount certificate for anyone attending. I figured if we ever cross the bridge of buying a unit we'll just negotiate the right price at that time. If it all sells out at full asking price then kudos to the developers I guess.

This is a much bigger project and idea than I've seen around here. They gave the impression this was pretty much business as usual for them in Toronto and elsewhere though.

So once I got past the realization that the focus group was just pretense, it's still an interesting and ambitious project. There was an abundance of confidence in this going ahead which was a bit contagious.

This is all very exciting. Crazy that it will be even taller than originally planned. That will look huge on that corner!
Could you tell me what style they have chosen?

Some things I didn't mention before...

In the presentation they touched on the Walk To Work tax incentive, and pointed out that a 1.25% tax break on purchase price would be worth $12,500 to $17,500.

I think that suggests the purchase prices would be in a range from $200,000 to $280,000

Somebody said they talked to the designers? There weren't any at our session.

In attendance was the appointed architect from chamberlain-online:
http://www.chamberlain-online.com/contact.htm

and some young sales reps from here:
http://www.pboline.com/

The sales reps seemed to only have cursory info, shifting questions over to the architect.

It's scary that the architect firm has such a low quality web site graphics, but they do have a nice portfolio of slick projects so maybe it's just their web dept that is weak.

There were a couple of well dressed people kind of hovering at the back that I suppose could have been owner-investors.

My instinct is that the hotel is a done deal and the residential tower is more of a speculation at this point. I got the feeling that the team was excited at the prospect of a fresh market for a formula that has run dry in other cities.

In other cities they've had lineups for >$250,000 shoebox sized condos, with buyers purchasing one to live in and one as investment. But I'm not sure this market is the same.

Perhaps if they do something dramatic like price units below $150,000 they'll get some fast action.

But in the center of Regina they'll be selling against re-sale units in Victoria Place, TD building and Hamilton building. And against new units in Canterbury, Evans Court and Leader Building. Then there are the constant development options springing up in the suburbs and other projects of a dozen spots here and a dozen there.

With a lot of supply coming on at the same time, things could get really competitive price-wise.

I really don't think they would price below 150,000 as anyone who bought that would likely be able to turn around and resell it for a profit very quickly. 150,000 would be a bit underpriced in my opinion... but the 200,000 area would be good I think. As a recent university graduate who's just starting out, something in the 200,000 area, would be great downtown... We will see though I guess. Just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Also, I took a look at the architects site... Look in the mixed-use section the fourth photo in, it's almost exactly the picture that was released regarding this project except that the hotel portion looks a little different. So maybe that was a bit of a stock photo type thing of a possibility and we might see something slightly different.

Not sure how you calculated that incentive. Isn't it just a 5 year tax exemption. $2500/year would be worth $12,500? If they are building this to the specs they are suggesting, you should expect the prices to be near $400/square foot for the smallet units.

chamberlain construction

Here's how I reverse calculated their numbers to determine what they think the expected purchase price range would be:

Purchase price $200,000
Incentive @ 1.25% = $2,500
Incentive for 5 years = 5 x $2,500 = $12,500

Purchase price $280,000
Incentive @ 1.25% = $3,500
Incentive for 5 years = 5 x $3,500 = $17,500

Right on, every company should add that to their website, then all projects would speed up :haha:

There have been numerous downtown condos in the low 200,000's that have been on the market through 2009.... several have gone to rental due to lack of buyer interest however. These are units with considerably more area than the 500-800 sq foot range also.

It suggests that getting above $200k for downtown condo is a tough sell. And with so many extra units flooding the buyer's attention, it doesn't bode well for selling 25 floors worth of units at $280k each.

However below $150,000 starts to become more tempting. As you prove, there's a certain price that attracts speculators. This is the EXACT model that's been used to develop high rise condo towers in other Canadian cities.... get the buyers on the hook for 2 or more units. That's how you sell the high number of units.

So if they start out selling at 150k and get strong interest, they can always change the price as the units start to sell out. It always looks better for a project to start off with a bang with limited time/units for pre-sale at the lower price. Doing it the other way doesn't work... start out at $280k, get no sales, then be seen slashing prices later on. Buyers don't feel any urgency, they worry about buying on speculation, and everyone wants to bargain hunt. At $150k people would be worried about whether or not they'd get the unit(s) they want or have limited selection.

I understand what you are saying and it does definitely make sense, but I just have a hard time believing they would set the price-point that low off the start. I suppose it's more of a "too good to be true" belief on my part. I've wanted to live downtown for a long time now... and now that I'm done university and starting working life, this is coming along at about the right time for me to have a bit of a down payment saved up, and something that affordable at this time, in the area I want is sort of crazy. Here's to hoping though. :cheers:

The model they seem to be following is the one from larger cities where buyers are enticed to get in early and buy multiple units in the hope of flipping one, renting one out, and using the profits to keep one. It's a model that worked for some buyers, but is quite risky and has since gone sour in many places.

They probably see Regina as fertile ground to work that same model. They seemed like a lot of their knowledge about the city and market was gleaned from statistics or googling which doesn't always tell you the true character or history of things.

If you are 'in the market' so to speak, you're a good sample point. How much would you be willing to pay for a 1+1 unit that's say 750 sq ft? (Generally shouldn't be more than 3x your income.) Also how much per month would you be able to devote to total living cost (mortgage, tax, utils, maintenance, insurance)

give the developers a chance please