The Official PEI Project Thread

[braymondg]

Here is a picture of Kent and Unversity street corner looking east. If you notice the building on the left on the corner, is a Tweel owned building and it was renovated and is occupied by Starbucks. They can and have the money to fix their properties but only when they want too.
They have a property on University beside the Metro Credit Union that is a wreck and should be torn down. Why the city doesn't put the pressure on them I don't know.

Please note: Look down Kent St., there are no overhead power wires. The city has to do the same on University. But notice how nice it looks and on the right, at the very end, you can see the Maritime Electric Building. I must admit, even though they used corrugated steel, it is a much better looking building and far better kept.

[MTLskyline]

Thanks for your responses!

Honestly, I don't find the Tweel Building to be much worse than the Maritime Electric Building. They look about the same to me.

[MonctonRad]

Oh, but they are different.............The Maritime Electric Building is a half decent office building. I have never been a fan of the corrugated steel and faux stucco cladding, but if that could be replaced then everything would be OK.

The Tweel Building on the other hand is nothing more than a firetrap!! It had some redeeming features back when it was Lord's Pharmacy but the recladding they did in the 1970's just killed it.

[pei guy]

Yeah, the city needs to step up to the plate on this one. The downtown could be much more vibrant and city-like if some of these ugly rundown buildings were torn down. Either that, or we call up Extreme Downtown Makeover!
I agree with you MonctonRad, because the Maritime Electric building isnt the best looking in the world, but it has some personality, good quality materials, and most of all... it's in use. With the amount of vacancy there is, the city should be really applying the pressure to building owners in the downtown.

[pei guy]

I found this on the Montague town website and thought it was pretty neat:

http://www.townofmontaguepei.com/Assets/PDF/Plans/officialplanmap090101.pdf

The existing streets and developed areas are all there, but there is lots of residential development planned for the north, and commercial / office planned for Main Street.

[pei guy]

Construction begins on new Ambulatory Care Centre at QEH

EDITORIAL STAFF
The Guardian



An architect’s image of the planned new entrance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown. Special to The Guardian



Construction has officially started on the new 80,000-square-foot Ambulatory Care Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
“I am very pleased with the great strides taking place at the QEH through the various redevelopment projects,” said Premier Robert Ghiz while speaking at a sod-turning event Thursday.
“Improving and enhancing the provision of health-care services for Islander remains a priority of government. The new Ambulatory Care Centre at the QEH is an example of one of the many accomplishments toward fulfilling that commitment.”
Ambulatory Care refers to the provision of same-day health-care service that is scheduled and delivered on an outpatient basis — it does not require an overnight stay in hospital.
When completed, the Ambulatory Care Centre will house out-patient services in one area and include resources/services such as the asthma education centre, health information centre, eye clinic, blood collection, blood transfusion procedures, wound care, casting, administration of intravenous antibiotics, cardiac and respiratory diagnostic services (i.e. cardiac stress testing, electrocardiogram and lung function tests), endoscopy and cystoscopy services, hemodialysis service, and a shared clinic space to host specialty clinics such as orthopedics, urology and others.
“Centralizing out-patient services to one location within the hospital will allow for more effective and efficient provision of ambulatory care services,” said Health and Wellness Minister Carolyn Bertram.
“It is exciting to see the progress our integrated health-care system continues to make in providing services that are patient-focused. In addition to being more convenient for patients, the new Ambulatory Care Centre will also allow for greater staff efficiencies and help reduce pressures on the emergency department at the QEH, where some of these services are currently provided.”
As part of the changes taking place in association with construction of the new Ambulatory Care Centre, a newly designed front entrance and lobby area will be constructed.
The new entrance will be much closer to the public parking lot, reducing the distance patients and visitors must walk from their car to the front door.
The information desk and admitting department will be located closer to the entrance, and the QEH Foundation will be relocated to the main level where it will be more convenient to access compared to its current location on the hospital’s third floor.

[hogan2]

Theres a new seniors building, just getting started in Montague, off the queens road, its behind the one thats there now, but its going to be bigger.

[pei guy]

Originally Posted by hogan2

Theres a new seniors building, just getting started in Montague, off the queens road, its behind the one thats there now, but its going to be bigger.

By "the one thats there now" I would assume you mean the seniors' home behind the hospital. Good to see some development! I will try to get some pictures of this soon.

[hogan2]

Sorry I should have put a street name, the new seniors home is off Bailey drive in the new sub division.

[pei guy]

Cool. I thought I saw something going on up there, but I didn`t know what. Thanks for the update.

[pei guy]

I found this video about the making of / a tour of the Jean Canfield Building in Charlottetown. Thought it would appeal to some people here:

http://climatechange.thinkaboutit.eu/think2/post/design_with_energy_in_mind_jean_canfield_building/

[MontagueHill]

Here is a link with information and renderings of the proposed waterfront condo development and Entertainment/Concert venue on Grafton street. The public meeting is scheduled for June 8.


http://city.charlottetown.pe.ca/pdfs/MicrosoftWord-NoticeforWebsite-PM-June8-10_final_.pdf

[MontagueHill]

[MontagueHill]

Holland College expansion:

http://24.222.141.118:1022/control/faststream.jpg?stream=full&fps=0



Holman's Grand Hotel:

http://confedmall.dyndns.biz:3375/cgi-bin/guestimage.html

[Smevo]

I like the size of the Holman's Grand, but I really hope the cladding on the tower turns out better than it shows in the rendering. Keeping the old facade on the bottom level is a really nice touch, but there looks to be a huge "eyesore potential" on that upper part.

[MTLskyline]

Yeah, it ain't particularly pretty based on the rendering. Hopefully the materials and cladding aren't really cheap.

Holland College is looking good though.

[pei guy]

Welcome to the forum, MontagueHill! Always good to have new input on here.

Originally Posted by Smevo

I like the size of the Holman's Grand, but I really hope the cladding on the tower turns out better than it shows in the rendering. Keeping the old facade on the bottom level is a really nice touch, but there looks to be a huge "eyesore potential" on that upper part.

Very true. The lower part will blend in well with the streetscape and be a good touch for the hotel, but I'm not even sure of the materials for the upper 7 floors. Hopefully good quality stuff, as MTLskyline said, and most times the finished product looks better than the render.

Also, Holland College is looking great for the eastern entrance to downtown... Hopefully the Holman's Grand will do the same for right in the downtown.

[pei guy]

View from the crane
The view of Charlottetown from the top of the Homburg crane:









Source: Kevin Bomp Thompson on Facebook

PS-
On MontagueHill's post of the page from the City website, it shows a concert venue at the entrance to Charlottetown, between Grafton and Water Streets. I personally think this would be a big mistake, because that would create a ton of traffic right between downtown and the bridge... also, it is situated on prime city land, and Confederation Landing isn't that far from this site. There is also a new traffic light planned connecting the massive parking lot (on the Irving Oil Sands property) to the concert venue. I find this ridiculous. Anyway, it's been a long day and I feel myself rambling.

[MontagueHill]

Thanks for the welcome pei guy. Those are some great photos. I must say that I don't think that the entertainment venue is fantastic but at least it's something useable. It'd be great to see some higher density, mixed use developments on land in that location. The issue seems to be that, without a massive cleanup, the site doesn't have a lot of options. This article talks about part of the site needing a hard cap/pavement on it:




Capital residents will get look at plans for old tank farm
DAVE STEWART
The Guardian

Residents in the capital city will soon get a closer look at proposals for the old Imperial Oil tank farm.
Charlottetown Area Development Corporation and the City of Charlottetown are in talks about scheduling a public meeting sometime in the next month.
A public meeting has to be held because CADC needs to have the property rezoned to Comprehensive Development Area (CDA).
The federal and provincial governments have each contributed $1 million to turn the former oil tank farm on Charlottetown’s waterfront into a concert and events site and a parking lot.
CADC is also chipping in $1 million plus the cost of purchasing the site, which is still in negotiations.
“Imperial Oil has done all their environmental (tests), looked at our plans and feel reasonably comfortable that what we’re proposing will work on the site,’’ said Ron Waite, general manager of CADC.
“We have to get the rezoning done and there’s the matter of negotiations with Imperial for the transfer of the land.’’
CADC will roll out its proposals for the two parcels of land, on either side of Grafton Street, at the public meeting.
The site used to be home to a landfill in addition to the oil tanks.
“It’s not the best site from an environmental perspective. Effectively, it needs to have a hard cap on it — cement or asphalt. Any land that is being used there has to be protected from any thermal contact.
“We can level the site out a little bit but we can’t move soil off it or anything like that. We have to go in and compact it as best as possible and then put pavement down.’’
Suffice to say that part of the site will have some degree of pavement on it, such as areas for staging and vendors.
“But, effectively it is a green site so we are required to put a minimum of a metre soil cap on it but (we will be) grading the site from the Maritime Electric side back to the bridge intersection.’’
A natural amphitheatre will be created with an elevated staging area some 15 feet high.
For the most part, however, the site will be converted to green space with a fair degree of shrubbery and planting around the exterior of the site to contain it and close it in.
On the Joe Ghiz Park side of Grafton Street, part of the site will be converted into a parking lot for Holland College and overflow for the Civic Centre with more than 500 spots.
“We’re working with the college to meet their parking needs but there are other things you can do,’’ he said, speculating that it could be used as space
for the provincial exhibition.

[pei guy]

Summerside's Waterfront Mall for sale
Asking price for the downtown mall is $2.9 million

Transcontinental Media


Once considered the jewel of downtown Summerside, the Waterfront Mall is officially listed for sale.
Michael Poczynek, a real estate specialist with Century 21, said the word is out that the property is available for just over half of its appraised value.
“There’s already been one offer but it’s off the table,” he said. “They may come back.”
Poczynek said the current asking price for the mall is $2.9 million. The appraised value is just under $4.5 million.
“Different companies buy things for different reasons and sometimes they buy assets just to appraise them. Like that mall, if it were fully rented it would be worth $15 million,” he said. “It’s worth triple that if you take it for land at square footage value.
“There has been a lot of interest.”
He suggested it would be ideal for a group of investors or for the tenants to come together as a co-operative.
It was purchased in February of 2006 by The Oran Group out of Cork, Ireland, with big plans to rebuild the retail space and add condominiums. But after three years of effort, tough economic times worldwide forced Oran Group to place the mall in receivership.
Tina Mundy is the mall’s operations manager and has the responsibility to bring the mall back to its former status as a major player in the Summerside economy. She was on the way to doing just that when the Oran Group pulled the plug.
Mundy had done the groundwork to begin revitalizing the mall and just three days after the receivers took over, she announced seven new businesses were opening their doors. More have come since and those efforts still continue.
Poczynek said even today, the mall is showing signs of life.
“The mall I feel is in better condition than it was when it was purchased (back in 2006),” he said. “They have done a lot of work. The economics are a lot better.”
There have been other changes in the area including the boardwalk and the bridge located behind the mall.
Poczynek sees a lot of potential in the mall, but admits there needs to be changes.
“Everybody seems to feel that there is too much square footage for retail space,” he said. “One of our people came up with a really good idea to rip half of the mall down and then do your building on the waterfront, because 85,000 square feet is more than enough and then build (housing) units that are economical. If you’re doing units for $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 max, I think you’d have a really good market there.”

MALL FACTS:
- Built in 1973
- Renovated 1999
- Upgraded 2006-2010
- Built on 11.44 acres
- 157,000-square-foot building
- Property includes about 890 feet of waterfront

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I think that a good idea would be to turn the mall into an outlet mall. This area of Summerside has lots of tourists, and it would be a big draw for visitors and Islanders alike. Also, who doesn't love outlets?
Or, they could tear down the half of the mall facing the waterfront and resurrect the plan to add condos / apartments, and have them right on the water. Either way, this could be a great opportunity to bring people back downtown Summerside.