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Originally Posted by The S'toon Goon
This is pure speculation on my part, but if this proposal ends up being built on the spot designated for the 'city center' perhaps it will look like the office portion of that proposal. I understand that they have changed the plans since those renderings were released but if the intention is to still have condos on the property I can't imagine they would alter the look too much? If condos aren't in the grand plan anymore, maybe the look would take on more of the appearance of the smaller office building there that I believe bhp uses. In any case I would hope something designated with a 'world trade center' label would have at least a little bit of wow factor. Of course, the same could maybe have been said about the Shangri-la...
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I feel like North Prairie cancelled that condo tower's progress over the sub par demand for Shangri La - because they actually believe Shangri is downtown (hence their horrible marketing of it being downtown). I live in a condo two blocks closer than Shangri La to downtown in City Park and don't consider myself living downtown. I feel like North Prairie does so much suburb development they actually compare demand for Shangri La to what demand for their downtown tower would be. I emailed them a couple years ago and asked when their downtown tower was coming as I'm looking to move downtown and they said they already have their "downtown" tower Shangri La for sale.
On a side note I went to Shangri La and there is no way I would move from my condo built and hasn't really been renovated much since it was built in 1982 to that thing. I have friends that live there that pay insane rent for such horrible quality and lack of services they get to that thing. They couldn't have cut anymore corners on that thing. I'm only writing this because I hope they read this thread. I hope their heads spun when river landing's condos sold in a week and according to their website Shangri La is still only 75% sold.
Is anyone also confused to why this announcement is happening now with no information other than a horribly low dollar value - and how Atchison, the guy as mayor publicly vouched for downtown development with next to no policy changes. It's like they're doing it as a disorganized attempt to scare developers like River Landing's from current commercial tower construction in a time of high vacancy - but low construction costs. All of these towers should be built as we speak - isn't spring a slower time to dig?
I just learned that the old police station's parking goes up to $385/month
http://www.icrcommercial.com/component/phocadownload/category/1-surveys?download=104:parking-survey I pay for two underground spots 1 downtown at work and 1 at my place in City Park for around $300/month. That's a cruel monopoly, and that's no incentive for those new developers to build a new tower in that prime spot. If anything that's incentive to build more parking there. I really hope this new mayor brings in some policy change to downtown development because there's a clear reason Saskatoon has lagged behind even smaller centers for downtown condo and commercial development. When a high profile company like Urban Capital comes into this province and is surprised by the demand in this region, it should be a signal to our council to make policy changes to push these slow moving duopoly developers.
I'm about to do some research on these other World Trade Centers including location, tower size, and cost, in Canada as it scares me that they gave North Prairie the rights to this thing. I just did a quick Google search on Vancouvers and it's connected to the whole Canada Place. If that's the case, this World Trade Center trademark should be attached to the new downtown commercial tower that would be attached to the new downtown arena that will be built in 10-15 years - preferably in the location of where Toys R Us is and also connected straight to the mall - finally connecting a large portion of the downtown - just like Winnipeg's interconnected downtown (somewhere I've lived over the winter and summer and LOVED their interconnected tunnels because let's be honest winter sucks here on those cold days - my coworkers would go for runs in the 5 km of connected into tunnels and skywalks). Since I'm guessing this will be one of the smallest World Trader Centers in Canada with this kind of budget (and Atchison's talk of connecting private, gov, and NGO's in this building is a complete jargon of nonsense), it's a shame they gave it to a developer like North Prairie who has more of a track record of making big announcements that have if anything scared away smaller developers with a max $50M budget versus North Prairie's true 300M plus budget they actually have. Shame.
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. But I will say this if they already have tenents lined up for this building with unique business connections and advantages then its a win for Saskatoon either way. 
Yawn...
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