I stole all of these from social media as I haven't been gallivanting around town. I'm hoping to get around this weekend though!
This building being renovated by Strata on 20th downtown. I don't have a mockup of the final photos that are on the street but it's very exciting that this one is getting a face lift so close to The Lighthouse!
Tees and Pers about a week ago - the boiler unit on the top is now there and it's looking very impressive! That will be an exciting rooftop to hang out on - I can see if from my balcony so it will be exciting to see that part of downtown more lit up! I was doing some investigating and there is eventually plans for a building in between this one and the 301 (old EGADZ). Exciting to fill in 1st Ave. City Council needs to put xmas lights on 1st Ave next year!!!
Yes - this is the bus depot! Amazon grocery we're waiting for you to open here! A franchised farmers market (like a Eataly type setup) would be amazing here with all of the parking surrounding it.
Escala is now on the 5th floor, this photo is work on the 4th floor.
And lastly a cute pic of our shifting downtown
HUGE kudos to Meridian and Strata for beautifying our downtown. HUGE. We are so lucky to have these two developers. If we were stuck with North Prairie I would be considering moving from downtown.
There are also quite a few lots being sold downtown from what I'm guessing is sentiment towards prospective builds for the new entertainment district. The more I think about it, I'm hoping the Arena/Convention center is in the parking lot north of Midtown. I'd personally love to have it next to the river like Vancouver, but the area North of Saskatoon is so well set up for a arena - all the historic buildings there will make incredible restaurant and shop spaces. Fingers crossed that and the library start very very soon!
I also think the announcement of H&M will be a major draw to downtown of casual shoppers that would typically have gone to Centre Mall/Lawson/Confed. This is exciting for our coffee shop scene - I just had a coworker from the states come here and was extremely excited for Second Cup - it's great to see so much development happening downtown from all levels. My favorite part about travelling to other cities is finding perfect niche coffee/bubble tea shops, and eateries.
I live and work downtown - one thing I haven't seen in the decade I've been here that I always see in other cities I work out of is construction workers downtown! All of the exciting developments downtown is bringing in a working demographic that we haven't had downtown. These are huge for the restaurants and lunch shops. Exciting to see that new working demographic downtown en masse, and lets cross our fingers we don't ever lose that demographic from now on.