Saskatoon Construction III

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by Ricopedra

Don't forget, the Sturdy Stone is basically a glorified parking lot with a few offices wedged under and above. And who cares, as long as you can park? Some people.

yaaa but I hope one day the parkade floors are retrofitted into more office space

[roryn1]

Thanks for checking us out and providing the great description of Vancouver’s project prairiedawg! That project is definitely what gave this one its inspiration!

[prairieguy]

The scope and scale is obviously much larger in the Vancouver project, but it is striking how similar the location, design and proximity to church it is to the Saskatoon "little brother" project.

[roryn1]

Anyone know when the arena is going to be announced? Long overdue!

[prairieguy]

I would think there will be no movement or announcement on this project until covid is under control and majority of population has been vaccinated. If for no other reason, the optics of a mega project (which I fully support, btw) being announced while the public health of a population and the economy of a city/province/country are in question would just not be received well.

Hopefully, much work behind closed doors will continue on this and when the timing is right a celebratory type announcement can be made.

Of course, this is all just my humble opinion!

[roryn1]

This is Regina related but Saskatoon definitely struggles the same if not more than Regina on this. Who wants to start an anti surface parking activist group with me?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...town-1.5862206

[prairieguy]

I would be very interested and appreciate if one of our great tech/graphic users on here could produce a similar map for Saskatoon. I was shocked to see Regina's!!

[The Bess]

Here is a non official discussion on arena location by one of the architects from Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...rena-1.5433663

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by The Bess

Here is a non official discussion on arena location by one of the architects from Kindrachuk Agrey Architecture.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...rena-1.5433663

hopefully there’s an announcement soon! I am itching for some positive news for Saskatoon - be it the arena or new downtown farmers market cynthia block promised in her election card last fall, or winter city adjustments to make downtown more bearable during this cold.

My hope is for more inter connectivity with our downrown 365 days of the year - and when I say that I mean I want to see the arena integrated with a hotel and possibly a condo - RIVER LANDING 2.0. Let’s dream big - in ten years time we’ll need another big project once this is complete.

when i lived in winnipeg I loved how Winnipeg’s MTS center connected to their skywalks and tunnels. I remember taking a walk down to it during a rainy/windy day during my lunch break to just get out of the office. Imagine being able to go for nice walks during your work breaks and even be able to walk to a concert in -40 without the need for a jacket. That’s the Saskatoon I want to see before I die

[prairieguy]

Speaking of making Saskatoon more engaging in winter....
I was pleasantly (and kind of have to admit a bit shocked) to see SO MANY people at Crossmount on the weekend. It is a great set up with skating pond, x-country ski trails, hiking/walking paths, snow shoeing and of course the cider pub.

What struck me was the number of people in -8C weather enjoying cups of hot cider at tables or around fires and hale bales. Some were enjoying a lunch of pizza and cider/beer. So....it made me think if the proper infrastructure where there, we really could do OUTSIDE patios for at least part of the winter downtown...just need some heaters and maybe blankets. It's worth a try.

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

Speaking of making Saskatoon more engaging in winter....
I was pleasantly (and kind of have to admit a bit shocked) to see SO MANY people at Crossmount on the weekend. It is a great set up with skating pond, x-country ski trails, hiking/walking paths, snow shoeing and of course the cider pub.

What struck me was the number of people in -8C weather enjoying cups of hot cider at tables or around fires and hale bales. Some were enjoying a lunch of pizza and cider/beer. So....it made me think if the proper infrastructure where there, we really could do OUTSIDE patios for at least part of the winter downtown...just need some heaters and maybe blankets. It's worth a try.

I live by a pond with a walking path around it and multiple skating areas cleared on it (as well as a loop all the way around that a neighborhood guy plows with his side-by-side dune buggy) and the number of people outside has definitely gone up this year, especially this winter. The pandemic has played a huge factor with more people/families just being around without a lot else to do, but the temperatures have been pretty fantastic throughout December and thus far in January as well. There are always people out walking, skating, sledding, having fires in the backyards, etc. which there hasn't been nearly the same activity in the previous 5 winters we've been around. However, if it were -20 and below, the number of people would definitely go way down (looks like we might find out next week if the forecast holds true).

Much like patios are subject to weather in the summer, having proper infrastructure for "reasonably warm" days in the winter like we've had could work in certain settings (Crossmount is definitely a nice setting to do that at, compared to sitting in a parking spot patio next to a busy street for instance).

[prairieguy]

Yes...the concept of "winter patios" would definitely be weather dependent and to a degree location dependent. But if we had more access to river front cafes and lounges, I bet you would see support. Something like Shifts great patio at the Remai!

This is an amenity that Saskatoon still sorely lacks for a 'river city'...great trails, but little to no "destinations" along river.

[tenraptors]

Not sure if this is the right place for musings, but since the U of S has depleted its reserves (https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...s-historic-low), do you think they will more seriously consider selling off or leasing the ag land within Circle Drive? If that happens, what would you like to see happen with that land?

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by prairieguy

Yes...the concept of "winter patios" would definitely be weather dependent and to a degree location dependent. But if we had more access to river front cafes and lounges, I bet you would see support. Something like Shifts great patio at the Remai!

This is an amenity that Saskatoon still sorely lacks for a 'river city'...great trails, but little to no "destinations" along river.

Yup, totally agree!

[roryn1]

Originally Posted by tenraptors

Not sure if this is the right place for musings, but since the U of S has depleted its reserves (https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...s-historic-low), do you think they will more seriously consider selling off or leasing the ag land within Circle Drive? If that happens, what would you like to see happen with that land?

I’m sorry they’ve gotten record enrolment from the pandemic, record low costs for doing everything online. What a joke. They’re thriving.

Anyway - yes! I wish they’d give up a lot more land.
1. Spreading manure on their existing land downtown makes our downtown smell which is a huge reason why I don’t want to live in Saskatoon. Is spreading manure sensible practice? They’re a school of ag why aren’t they experimenting with new fertilizers. We’re not a dairy province - leave dairy to guelph. We are an oat milk province that grows like 70% of North America’s oats.
2. Does any other university have this much land in the core of their city? I think it’s very wasted and hurts our downtown. The area just off of preston could be a very high end residential area. It’s not even good land for future planning - if our arena or any other important amenity gets built on it that’s geared towards downtown i’ll barf.

[Echoes]

The university is pursuing development of a large portion of their core endowment lands (albeit at a slow pace), which presents a significant infill opportunity for the city as well as a huge potential for revenue to support the university (which tenraptors was getting at).

I found a webpage on the planning currently underway for the area -- see "University Sector Plan": https://www.saskatoon.ca/business-de...s/sector-plans

[Crisis]

That U of S Lands map twigged me to an interesting memory from many years ago.

Back when Home Depot was first coming to Saskatoon, the developer (Shindico, as I recall) was actually working with the U of S and the COS to place our first Home Depot on the triangular-ish piece of land between Circle Drive and Sutherland, south of 108th Street. I recall discussion of the infrastructure required to get traffic in and out of there. In the end, it went in the more conventional location on the south side of Circle Drive, though probably at a much higher land cost.

[YXE]

What type of development should we expect for the Phase 1 portion of this plan? Has there been any discussion?

[Sask.ks]

Originally Posted by YXE

What type of development should we expect for the Phase 1 portion of this plan? Has there been any discussion?

I haven’t heard anything or seen anything new from the U of S/City. I imagine the plot in Sutherland will be developed into multi-family residential. It’d be cool if a couple mid-rise mixed-use towers were built there, if the land can get rezoned successfully (and the NIMBYs don’t prevail)

There’s a master plan for CQ floating around, you can find it here: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/pdf/co...Plan_Final.pdf

That was released 6 years ago...I doubt there will be any major developments at CQ until the economy recovers.

[Dalreg]

The south lands should be reserved for a sports precinct. Maybe a stadium and the new arena?