Saskatoon Construction III

[prairieguy]

This is a more comprehensive story on the Fed funding. Provides a bit more detail and perspective.

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...%20development.

[prairieguy]

Originally Posted by phone

Giving this a bump -- seems like Spire is dead in the water. Which would be a shame if true. If we get two or three legitimately nice projects a decade in this city, that seems to be all we can handle....

Perhaps Meridian just needs a little time to recover from the devastating loss they suffered with the death of Karl Miller and family. This had to have impacted their business activities and I am sure they need to "regroup" and determine a path forward without his leadership.

I am still hopeful for this project to proceed. Perhaps a great legacy tribute project for Karl.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by phone

Giving this a bump -- seems like Spire is dead in the water. Which would be a shame if true. If we get two or three legitimately nice projects a decade in this city, that seems to be all we can handle....

Like the comment from the previous page, I really think it's the current economic conditions that has this and other projects on hold.

[skeet1991]

RE: Spire

Also, the city is in the process of removing parking minimums, no? They've been whispering about it for months with the recently announced Rapid Housing funding.

If I were a developer, I'd be holding off on any major project with the potential of vastly re-shaping the project to have less parking and more units/retail. I've been thinking that perhaps that's a part of it.

Maybe once that's finalized this spring/summer, we'll see some major projects reshaped and announced (Spire, College/Clarence, maybe even the rumored rental-ified Highpoint on Broadway?)

[reddo]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Like the comment from the previous page, I really think it's the current economic conditions that has this and other projects on hold.

Hopefully that's it but that's all it is, but seems weird to just take the website offline like that. Not only that but the domain name expires in a few hours and has not been renewed. To me that's a bad sign it's like $20 to renew it, pretty minor cost for something of this scale.

[reddo]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

This is a more comprehensive story on the Fed funding. Provides a bit more detail and perspective.

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...%20development.

I'm curious who's supposed to build these extra 25000 units over the next ten years. If Saskatoon is currently doing 2600/year and that continues with the 25000 on top of that (total of 50000+ over 10 years) we have to double the work force like right now. Not only that but people in the permits office, draftsman, engineers, Truss companies. None of that will be able to keep pace.

[Roquentin]

The five houses west of the old Extra Foods on Broadway have been sold. I wonder if they now have the same owner as the grocery store property, and if we'll see a single large proposal for that whole strip. In any case, it would be nice to see some action there sooner rather than later.

[4LSaskatoon]

Took part in the meeting explaining the new Federal housing programs along our BRT Corridors..
Alot going on for the next 3yrs!

Housing Acceleration Action Plan.
Highlights of the meeting Feb. 29th. ....
Of the 3 lines of BRT. Green line is first to be built, starting this year.
Corridor planning has been expanded... up to 4 stories within 800 meters of BRT.

The main purpose of the meeting is to show this BRT corridor, and how they've expanded it. Instead of developing corridor housing in parts.. will now be all together.
Saskatoon population grew by approx. 14,000 in 2023.
The 41 million is Saskatoon's portion of a nation wide program.. intended to develop affordable housing along rapid transit Corridors.
The time line for the program is 2-3yrs.
This fund will develop our Corridors alot faster.
Exciting to see a timely solution for our housing challenges!
I also don't know where there going to find the workforce..

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by 4LSaskatoon

Took part in the meeting explaining the new Federal housing programs along our BRT Corridors..
Alot going on for the next 3yrs!

Housing Acceleration Action Plan.
Highlights of the meeting Feb. 29th. ....
Of the 3 lines of BRT. Green line is first to be built, starting this year.
Corridor planning has been expanded... up to 4 stories within 800 meters of BRT.

The main purpose of the meeting is to show this BRT corridor, and how they've expanded it. Instead of developing corridor housing in parts.. will now be all together.
Saskatoon population grew by approx. 14,000 in 2023.
The 41 million is Saskatoon's portion of a nation wide program.. intended to develop affordable housing along rapid transit Corridors.
The time line for the program is 2-3yrs.
This fund will develop our Corridors alot faster.
Exciting to see a timely solution for our housing challenges!
I also don't know where there going to find the workforce..

So, the 25,000 units announced are all to be built along BRT corridors? Or am I misinterpreting that? If that's the case, a difficult challenge just became an impossible one.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by reddo

I'm curious who's supposed to build these extra 25000 units over the next ten years. If Saskatoon is currently doing 2600/year and that continues with the 25000 on top of that (total of 50000+ over 10 years) we have to double the work force like right now. Not only that but people in the permits office, draftsman, engineers, Truss companies. None of that will be able to keep pace.

We need to be bringing in construction workers rather than Uber drivers.

[4LSaskatoon]

Originally Posted by Crisis

So, the 25,000 units announced are all to be built along BRT corridors? Or am I misinterpreting that? If that's the case, a difficult challenge just became an impossible one.

*The Housing Accelerator Fund portion for Saskatoon ($41 million) is to build 940 housing units within 3 years. Criteria for these units.. is that they be built with close access to Rapid Transit. This fits in perfectly with our current Corridor planning with our BRT.

There's a lot of housing programs that are ( or will be available shortly) also happening ....
*City of Saskatoon Corridor Planning
*Rapid housing Initiative with CMHC
*Fed programs for Housing Cooperatives/ low income

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by reddo

I'm curious who's supposed to build these extra 25000 units over the next ten years. If Saskatoon is currently doing 2600/year and that continues with the 25000 on top of that (total of 50000+ over 10 years) we have to double the work force like right now. Not only that but people in the permits office, draftsman, engineers, Truss companies. None of that will be able to keep pace.

Units = buildings.

If Saskatoon wants to really increase the pace at which units are built, it should pre-permit several different designs for multi-unit buildings on certain lot sizes. I have to imagine a construction company could easily double its pace of construction if it was building the same two or three fourplex designs over and over. Or if a construction company used to building SFHs were to start building triplex apartments instead in a similar building envelope (i.e., three 1,000 sqft. units instead of one 3,000 sqft. home) that would boost the company's productivity by 3x! Standard designs may not lead to inspiring architectural variety, but they would definitely speed-up construction and should reduce costs.

And as for larger multi-unit buildings, Saskatoon doesn't have a wealth of experience building high rise apartments (see Baydo Et al) but we seem to have plenty of experience building five-over-ones in Stonebridge, Brighton, Evergreen, etc. If city council was to immediately allow these on all of the parking lots and low-density strip malls that line 8th and 22nd, they could be built much faster than their suburban brethren. Unlike the Brighton Village rental building that had to wait years for all infrastructure to be built from scratch before it could begin construction, apartments on existing arterials have streets, water, and power readily available and could begin construction six months after ideation if permitting was expedited.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by Roquentin

The five houses west of the old Extra Foods on Broadway have been sold. I wonder if they now have the same owner as the grocery store property, and if we'll see a single large proposal for that whole strip. In any case, it would be nice to see some action there sooner rather than later.

AllSask reporting that these have indeed been purchased by James Wright, one of the owners of the Extra Foods property.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Echoes

AllSask reporting that these have indeed been purchased by James Wright, one of the owners of the Extra Foods property.

I guess a development down 2/3 of the block would eliminate alley access onto Main?

The urbanist fantasy for a development like that would be this Safeway in my neighbourhood in Vancouver: Davie Street Safeway

[RobD]

https://www.saskatoon.ca/services-re...t-data-reports

[prairieguy]

Originally Posted by Echoes

AllSask reporting that these have indeed been purchased by James Wright, one of the owners of the Extra Foods property.

That is a pretty big chunk of property for development. I hope it is something special...

[Stormer]

The City has put Parcel G at River Landing up for sale for $10.5 million.



https://www.saskatoon.ca/business-de...-river-landing

[skeet1991]

Curiosity about the Broadway/Extra Foods development took me to Wescliff's website, where it lists 'The Webster' as a coming mixed-use development in University Heights.

A bit more digging brings up this listing, which exemplifies what I think we'll see a LOT more of in the coming years. Buildings like this all down 8th and 22nd would really transform our city.

Kudos to Westcliff for investing in Saskatoon.

https://listingsprod.blob.core.windo...2-64223c943811

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Stormer

The City has put Parcel G at River Landing up for sale for $10.5 million.



https://www.saskatoon.ca/business-de...-river-landing

While I am happy to see surface parking lots developed, I continue to be concerned about the size of Saskatoon's downtown. I know riverfront property at River Landing will see a different type of development compared to, say, the parking lot at 22nd and 3rd or the lot at 20th and 2nd, but I really wish the downtown core (bounded by the River, Idylwyld, and 25th, IMO) was filled out before we develop River Landing, the industrial area by the police station, or City Park.

A spread out downtown pockmarked by surface lots makes walking less convenient and also reduces the utility of centralized amenities. E.g., would a grocery store at 22nd and 2nd, which I consider to be the geographic centre of downtown, or will the new Central Library effectively serve someone living car-free at River Landing? I would say not, since both will be more than a kilometer away, which is farther than the arbitrary definition of 800 metres being walking distance.

All I can hope (and this seems futile at this point) is that Saskatoon will stop allowing sprawling new neighbourhoods with faux-walkable village centres that everyone drives to anyways (seriously, how many people do you know who lives in Stonebridge but walks to the Sobeys, or who live in Evergreen and have ever spent time in the Evergreen Village Square) and start requiring that the vast majority of development is infill along corridors that can conveniently be served by transit and have access to every day amenities like grocers and parks. This is the only way that the downtown will be filled out (the arena would eliminate the largest downtown surface lot, but does anyone really expect a building boom of condos or apartments because thousands of Rush fans want to be able to walk to nine home games per year?), core neighborhoods will be revitalized, and the city will eliminate the ever growing gap between maintaining infrastructure and delivering services and its funding.

[skeet1991]

FarmerHaight - Completely agree with you about limiting sprawl. My colleagues often lament my lack of grocery store in City Park, until I ask them the last time they walked to their Stonebridge Sobeys.

However, I often walk from City Park to River Landing and back, so I think the downtown library will be more accessible to downtown residents than you think.

Also, to your point about the stadium; think about River Landing. A naysayer may have said "Do you actually expect private businesses to invest after the city just updates the pathways and roads along the river?" and look at that massive success. I think, based on Edmonton, that a few condos and a ton of commercial space will go up around the stadium if it happens.

I agree about densifying our current downtown. Way too many vacant lots. With our recent growth and changing zoning/parking bylaws, I'm hopeful to see a few downtown infill projects announced soon.