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  #2021  
Old Posted May 9, 2019, 9:35 PM
asdfgh asdfgh is offline
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I mean, who hasn't dreamed of living in an apartment across from the street from a stripmall parking lot with an A&W at the back of it.

That is a totally unmatched lifestyle experience in Saskatoon.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Oiler View Post
so this is what Visionary and unmatched are...!

7-11!!!!
Shoppers drug mart!!!!
Save on foods
Tim hortons!!!!!!
Urban cellars
SaskTel store
A&w
Sally beauty supply
Good earth coffee
Pet valu
Cooke insurance
Subway!!!
Motion fitness
Ultracuts!!!
Panago
A dentist and optometrist

Super exiciting!
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  #2022  
Old Posted May 10, 2019, 3:14 AM
ToonTownRob ToonTownRob is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by King Ralph View Post
Everyone needs to be realistic.

There will not be a notable commercial construction in downtown Saskatoon for at least 10 years after River Landing is built out. By notable, I am referring to something over 5 stories, which is really not notable by any stretch of the imagination.
I thought the same thing prior to the shorter of the two office towers starting up. Then I thought what would become the Nutrien tower was ‘vapour ware’, and here it is... under construction. Which proves I don’t know so much. And neither do you.

The fact is, the fastest growing metropolitan area in Canada for the last (? 15 years - have to check stats can for the period) has been Saskatoon. And despite this, ZERO commercial office tower space built downtown in all of that time. It took outsiders with far more vision than local builders to recognize the need for new high end office space in Saskatoon. Even what is underway now at Riverlanding doesn’t keep up proportionately with the growth of Saskatoon as a city, and despite the propensity for city administration to chase office development away from downtown Saskatoon, there is still an awful lot of room for catch-up. There are also a ton of reasons to build and locate in downtown Saskatoon.

With some people with vision and obvious skill leading the way, I suspect you will see a surprising renaissance in downtown Saskatoon. Our housing exploded when outsiders began to flock here because locals had no idea just how good they had it. The same thing will happen with commercial office space downtown, because people who build it will always want to make money doing so, and RL is demonstrating to them that the pastures here are very green compared to just about any other major western Canadian city.

I know you have a major personality defect and like to crap on all things Saskatoon, on a Saskatoon thread no less, but Saskatoon’s skyline changed a lot in the late 70’s - early 80’s and those weren’t boom times. It was just... time. Right now, in board rooms across the country commercial developers have Saskatoon on their radar, and they don’t need local everything to be nearly so perfect as the local boys have been holding out for in their insulated ignorance.

It is now, and will continue to be, Saskatoon’s time for the next while.

Come back in seven years and we’ll see who was right!
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  #2023  
Old Posted May 10, 2019, 6:41 PM
roryn1 roryn1 is offline
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No one needs to comment to King Ralph, but your comments are spot on and good for developers to see Rob - of which I think a few float around here. The developers are stupid if they're not occasionally browsing the news on here.
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  #2024  
Old Posted May 10, 2019, 9:42 PM
casper casper is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Oiler View Post
so this is what Visionary and unmatched are...!

7-11!!!!
Shoppers drug mart!!!!
Save on foods
Tim hortons!!!!!!
Urban cellars
SaskTel store
A&w
Sally beauty supply
Good earth coffee
Pet valu
Cooke insurance
Subway!!!
Motion fitness
Ultracuts!!!
Panago
A dentist and optometrist

Super exiciting!
Honestly it is a positive. Is this going to change the city in some global way? No.

It does create a sub-burn environment to raise kids have a home that has most of the day to day amenities in walking distance. Drink coffee that does not come from Starbucks.

If you expect more than this from a sub-urban development I think your asking for to much. This is not downtown Saskaton this is a sub-burn and it looks to be one of the better designed ones.
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  #2025  
Old Posted May 10, 2019, 10:04 PM
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Echoes Echoes is offline
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What I'd give to have the 7-11 on Broadway back.

A convenience store is such an essential piece of a complete, urban neighbourhood. I don't think the Broadway Confectionary has filled the gap in product selection or hours of operation (convenience).
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  #2026  
Old Posted May 10, 2019, 10:05 PM
prairieguy prairieguy is offline
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I am NOT a fan of suburban sprawl but as far as Suburb commercial developments go, the Stonebridge commercial area off of Preston is as decent as they come for burbs. Several restaurants, bakery, coffee places, grocery, liquour, pharmacy, medical services, library....if the intent is to try and not have to leave your burb, then they seem to have the services they need. Just not for me...but understand it meets the needs of many. It would just be nice to see a bit a shift towards densification.

I do have to say that I am seeing more and more knock downs and infill happening right now in our neighborhood of Varsity View ....even given our pretty crap housing market I am surprised at the new builds happening! Now if North Prairie would get their SHITE together and start on the College and Clarence project. Does it even have a name??
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  #2027  
Old Posted May 11, 2019, 10:09 PM
The Bess The Bess is offline
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Hey Prairie Guy there is a thread for it called The River Terraces
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  #2028  
Old Posted May 12, 2019, 1:22 PM
prairieguy prairieguy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bess View Post
Hey Prairie Guy there is a thread for it called The River Terraces
Haha...well that is embarrassing...I was actually the last one to post to that thread! But in my defense. that was on January 31st!! Nothing newsworthy to post since then. Disappointing....

Thanks, Bess.
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  #2029  
Old Posted May 13, 2019, 3:00 AM
King Ralph King Ralph is offline
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Critical views of the current situation in the city are important. This forum can be a bit of a Saskatoon circle jerk at times.

I like River Landing, except for the uninspired condo building. However, the fact of the matter is this - River Landing will meet the need for class a office space for quite some time. There just are not enough businesses in the city that need that kind of space.

Quote:
Originally Posted by roryn1 View Post
No one needs to comment to King Ralph, but your comments are spot on and good for developers to see Rob - of which I think a few float around here. The developers are stupid if they're not occasionally browsing the news on here.
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  #2030  
Old Posted May 13, 2019, 3:08 PM
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Stormer Stormer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by King Ralph View Post
Critical views of the current situation in the city are important. This forum can be a bit of a Saskatoon circle jerk at times.

I like River Landing, except for the uninspired condo building. However, the fact of the matter is this - River Landing will meet the need for class a office space for quite some time. There just are not enough businesses in the city that need that kind of space.
And the fact is most of the tenants are vacating other buildings.
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  #2031  
Old Posted May 14, 2019, 5:24 PM
roryn1 roryn1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer View Post
And the fact is most of the tenants are vacating other buildings.
This had to happen - you weren't going to see lower net income revenue type businesses in the suburbs move from the suburbs straight to the most brand new and premium building downtown - that wouldn't happen anywhere. These now vacant buildings can now charge lower leases for the older quality that they are, or raise prices but be better at incentivizing suburban businesses to move downtown. I knew quite a few people working in Saskatoon Square and it was an aweful building to work in - very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter. It may have looked (kinda?) pretty but there are nicer buildings in the suburbs for cheaper leases.

For the suburban offices that can be downtown - the issue is incentives and pitching the opportunity to be downtown - something our local developers fail at. Most of our local developers seem to be aligned with the North Saskatoon Business Association which seems to be anti-downtown progress based on their comments about downtown active transportation and pro north downtown business each and every way possible. Putting logos of a World Trade Center in Stonebridge and at Prairieland Park is a great example of how our local developers have very unaligned views with the future of our downtown compared to the majority of jurisdictions in North America.

I would argue at least 10-20% of suburban businesses could move downtown tomorrow which is a huge number - they just need the incentives to be pushed, and the de-incentivizers like the NSBA to straight up stay in the North or whatever they represent and leave the downtown planning to the downtown businesses that don't fund the NSBA.

https://saskedge.ca/a-solution-to-yx...ancy%EF%BB%BF/

Last edited by roryn1; May 14, 2019 at 5:46 PM.
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  #2032  
Old Posted May 14, 2019, 9:58 PM
The Bess The Bess is offline
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Maybe they could add 5 stories of glass tower on top of the sturdy stone for the library and maybe the top floor for restaurant, winter garden etc. not sure if the original design would allow for it.
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  #2033  
Old Posted May 15, 2019, 12:29 AM
roryn1 roryn1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bess View Post
Maybe they could add 5 stories of glass tower on top of the sturdy stone for the library and maybe the top floor for restaurant, winter garden etc. not sure if the original design would allow for it.
To my knowledge Ministry of Social Services - what’s in that building, is already spread out in suburban locations across the city because the downtown location is maxed. This is a perfect example of a organization that’s waiting for a larger location downtown.
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  #2034  
Old Posted May 15, 2019, 6:57 PM
roryn1 roryn1 is offline
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Another great example - Victory Majors themselves lol. Their address is in sutherland next to SIGA (another one that definitely should be downtown) and it looks like they're taking up a fairly large building there. Come on guys come move to your tower haha.
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  #2035  
Old Posted May 16, 2019, 6:39 PM
Ricopedra Ricopedra is offline
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edit

Last edited by Ricopedra; Jun 7, 2021 at 8:02 PM.
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  #2036  
Old Posted May 17, 2019, 7:28 AM
Temperance Temperance is offline
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Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival Site

This slipped under the radar (at least for me) but it looks like the improvements to the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival Site are now funded and proceeding:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...ades-1.5117460

That whole area can come together nicely with this, the Children's Museum, the improvements to Kinsmen Park, and the possible pedestrian bridge at the weir.
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  #2037  
Old Posted May 17, 2019, 5:04 PM
ToonTownRob ToonTownRob is offline
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No new development after River Landing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer View Post
And the fact is most of the tenants are vacating other buildings.
The thing that is being ignored in all of this discussion is how standards change. Everyone is viewing the Saskatoon office space market as a matter of numbers, but anyone with a sense of history and retail/business growth will tell you that people don’t always go by the numbers. Here’s the issue that no one is considering.

Just how much Class A space in a major development has been created in Saskatoon recently? None. So there has been no taste for it.

Excuse the Corner Gas reference, but I think River Landing will move a lot of people into a new ‘wine bracket’. There are lots of people owning or managing firms who aren’t giving one bit of thought to being in nicer digs downtown. But just watch what happens...

Somebody goes to do business with someone who works in one of those towers, or has a buddy, or a wife, that does. And they go meet them for lunch one day and walk down and sit in the park at noon, or park underground when it’s minus 30 outside, and suddenly that old office in the industrial area, or that old building on the edge of the core that was always “good enough” suddenly isn’t anymore.

Who would have thought that Saskatoon could support high end luxury vehicle dealerships? And yet, here they are. And every time one of those vehicles goes cruising down the street, someone else looks at it and says “Wow... I want one of those.” Do you think that guy doesn’t already have a car? Of course he does.
Just like he already has an office.

On the basis of vehicle numbers Saskatoon should never sell a new car again. But things change, standards and expectations change, and people’s desires and expectations change. And certainly technology drives evolution as well.

How many people renovate homes, not because the cabinet doors don’t function anymore, but because they are tired of them and just don’t like the look of them now? It is shameful and sinful how much we throw away our built environment just because we don’t like it’s aesthetics anymore. But it is human nature.

“I just saw Janie’s new kitchen and it is to die for!”

If people can afford to make a change, and desire it, they will.

Why did McDonalds tear down all of their 80’s style restaurants in Saskatoon and replace them with new ones? What... the old ones suddenly stopped functioning properly? Of course not. But they are big enough to be able to know from other markets that sales go up enough in new restaurants to justify throwing a perfectly good and serviceable building away. And that is what they did.

Current trends and desires and expectations drive markets.

The only reason no one wanted fancy downtown offices is because no one has seen what that looked like in downtown Saskatoon in thirty years. But now that people with vision and the money to back it up are showing the way, just watch.

Saskatoon’s going to get moved into a new “office bracket”. That place in the suburbs that forces a longer commute for half the office, with a freezing cold walk through the gravel parking lot, and no corporate gym with showers, and blowing dust outside all summer, is going to start to look really tired. Or that 1960’s drafty building that used to be a TV repair shop (remember those?) and was converted into office space in 1998 is going to become embarrassing for attracting clients or staff to the engineering or law firm. Or the small business doing IT or communications work for whom somebody like Nutrien represents half their business, and it will only help to be located a few floors down.

People’s built environment is just like the clothes they wear and the cars they drive. Most of it sells based on desire, not need. People make decisions, especially purchasing ones, with their heart and then try to back it up with their head. And they send the old stuff to value village. And someone else uses it.

The equivalent in buildings will be a whole lot of people moving, renovating, and lots of upgrading. Everybody will be moving up to something better, because the shiny new buildings showed them the way. And others will move up into the space vacated by others and so on down the line. At the bottom, the space will be converted, into high end residential, and everyone will be happy.

These are the factors that people looking at square footage numbers are missing. Human nature is human nature. And it will always drive things forward.

The naysayers will always quote numbers to justify their pessimism, and the builders, movers and shakers will drive forward despite what they say, simply because it puts a smile on their face, or a buck in their pocket, or both.
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  #2038  
Old Posted May 18, 2019, 2:14 AM
The Bess The Bess is offline
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Dam good piece there ToonTownRob, makes alot of sense, especially when you drive around and see businesses that have nice branch offices in other cities but not so much here.
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  #2039  
Old Posted May 18, 2019, 3:36 PM
prairieguy prairieguy is offline
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So Highpoint is working on their sales centre trailor....Escala has opened up a street front sales office....River Terraces??? ...dusty, dirt field with no sign of action or even sales initiatives. I cannot believe how this company consistently announces projects to then disappear from the face of the earth. I mean they have not even put up a sign of "coming soon"....at least Baydo has done that on their empty parking lot on Broadway.
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  #2040  
Old Posted May 20, 2019, 11:02 PM
roryn1 roryn1 is offline
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River Quarry looks like it’s just about complete! The silver front piece looks stunning

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