There are a handful of purpose built rentals in West District. All of the apartments fronting 77th Street for instance as well as Adelaide. And the Quarters as well.

Just a different line of business for them to diversify I to. And I am not 100% certain but once a building is finished and stable with occupancy, you can typically get a loan for it at a lower rate, allowing you to draw capital from it as the stabilized rents will cashflow the loan.
Yea that makes sense. Surprised there's that much rental demand in West District.
 
The Wellington, which is the new building where they are doing the excavation, will be a rental only.

Oak and Olive is also rental only.

I think the three larger towers that Truman has planned may be for sale.

West side Calgary is a desirable place to live. 15 minutes to downtown, close to the mountains, and easy access to the ring road. Also, four of the best private schools are all located on the west side.

I believe, and many do, that Calgary, and the rest of Alberta, are on the verge of a major investment boom for at least a decade.

CNRL announced a $15 bn expansion. Others will follow.

Data centres will also be huge in the province.

People involved in real estate are wildly bullish about Alberta: https://renx.ca/alberta-expects-billions-in-investment-that-is-good-news-for-cre

A picture of Wellington

Screenshot_20251115_095436_Drive.jpg
 
First time over here this past weekend. Nice new area but University District is definitely more vibrant. Maybe this area will be more impressive in a few years. Lots of new retail potentiallly to be added around Truman’s new head office and adjacent buildings.

UD is definitely more vibrant. But it's been building for years.

The progress at WD is impressive if you take into consideration that about a year ago, the only retail there was at the Gateway building. Everything else has been completed in the last year.

Not sure if this is true, but the below article suggests that West District will have one of the longest retail streets in Calgary. I think by the summer of 2027 the street will be transformed


Calgary’s West District to Feature Eight-Block Retail High Street [Interview]​


By Mario Toneguzzi
Date:
July 2, 2024

Calgary-based, family-owned, Truman Development Corporation is creating a massive mixed-use community called West District which eventually will include an unprecedented high street of eight blocks with various retail, dining and entertainment tenants.

Tony Trutina, President of the company, said his father George started buying and assembling the land for the huge development, in the western part of Calgary, about 10 years ago. Today, it’s about 95 acres, a contiguous piece.

The project will eventually have several thousand residential units, several hundred thousand square feet of commercial, retail and office space.

“This area was just under-serviced,” said Trutina. “There wasn’t really a master-planned community at the time that this started. Ten years ago, 15 years ago, there was none that had a large contiguous land assembly like this one where you could try and do a main street, where you can plug and play certain uses, and program the street, which is not typical.

“Of this scale, I can only think of us that are doing it and that’s really it.”

The first phase of the development began in 2017.

“The vision is an urban main street where you can truly live, work, play, enjoy. You don’t have to be downtown to go to a great restaurant. All the things that you would do like destination kind of shopping which Calgary is, we’re trying to incorporate it all 10 steps from your front door. That was the idea, the concept behind it,” explained Trutina. “And that’s where the main street concept has come from.”

John Moss, Senior Vice President of real estate firm CBRE, who is handling the retail leasing of the project, said the project is creating an eight city block high street.

So when you consider Kensington, 4th Street, 17th Avenue and Marda Loop, all of those neighbourhoods are in between four to six blocks max. Truman is being more aggressive, bringing eight city blocks that’s going to impact the whole city,” said Moss.

“This is going to be a destination for people from all over the city who are going to come. In addition to the park that they’ve curated. This is going to be a major mecca. A social media hub for the public art they’re bringing. It’s going to be city renowned.”

Trutina said a public park will be “massive”, one of the largest in the city. It will be finished in September.

Moss said one of the goals is to bring more daytime traffic to the community.

“Keeping everybody in close proximity to where they live, work and play. The food and beverage program that we’re trying to bring is we want to bring the best of class local operators like the UNA, the Blanco, the Deville coffee that we’ve already started and then start bringing other national, international players just to augment that,” said Moss.

“The food and beverage is always going to be the base. But then we want to start bringing in more fitness boutique, more retail, personal service. Anything from your local fashion retailers. We want to bring that more so you have that walkability and you have a very diverse use. We don’t want to just focus on one, you have to give everybody every offering, and every experience.”

Commercial space will include a 40,000-square-foot Sobeys.

Trutina said main street will open later this fall and the whole build out of the project will be between five and 10 years.

According to a retail leasing brochure by CBRE, West District’s average household income within a 10-minute driving radius is 152 per cent above Calgary’s and 181 per cent more than Canada’s. Its average household spending is 148 per cent more than Calgary’s and 168 per cent more than Canada’s.

The CBRE brochure says the master-planned community will bring over 3,500 new dwelling units with an anticipated 7,000 + residents with more than one million square feet of office and 500,000 square feet of retail space. The new community will host over 250 new shops and services creating over 5,000 new jobs with an anticipated 60,000+ year visitors.

Currently, the population surrounding the West District is just over 119,000 people within a five-kilometre radius. CBRE says this is anticipated to increase to 160,700 by 2033, growth of 135 per cent in 10 years.


 
So when you consider Kensington, 4th Street, 17th Avenue and Marda Loop, all of those neighbourhoods are in between four to six blocks max. Truman is being more aggressive, bringing eight city blocks that’s going to impact the whole city,” said Moss.

17th definitely runs from at least 4th-14th (1600m), but I'd even say its 2nd-15th for a full 2km (long blocks)

Broadcast Ave could be a little under 800m. Same as Centre St from 8th-16th.

If you allow an L shape then Kensington Rd-10 St NW is about 1km. 9 Ave in Inglewood is 800-1000m. You could probably make an argument for a stretch of 11th Ave SW.

Still pretty darn unique in the suburban context, if it actually gets there. Which I wouldn't have really doubted until realizing how unique it would be!
 
Currently, the population surrounding the West District is just over 119,000 people within a five-kilometre radius. CBRE says this is anticipated to increase to 160,700 by 2033, growth of 135 per cent in 10 years.
That is definitely 35% growth, not 135%. The second number is 135% of the first, but that's not the same as 135% more.

Makes me question the other numbers in the article, and whether the author or the editor understand what a percentage is.
 
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One thing about west district is everything has been concrete over all wood in university district.
Are you referring to building construction? If so, it is a mix in both. In West District, the only fully concrete buildings are:
- Gateway 1 &2
- Plaza 1 & 2
- Oak & Olive
- Parkside
- The Quarters / HQ

Wood frame are:
- Mulberry
- Newberry 1 & 2
- Adelaide 1 & 2
- Mondrian 1 &2

I presume Wellington 1 &2 will be wood frame, and The Rise will be perhaps a mix of both, with the southern 6 storey portion being wood, and the tower portion being concrete.
 
West District may be a while to catch up on U/D, and may never fully catch up as U/D has a couple of advantages right off the start. It's beside a 38,000 student university, and a hospital. It's also in the middle of a large area of established residential that doesn't have a lot of retail options if you're not into going to Market Mall. West District is at the edge of the city and not far from other existing retail clusters.

That said, W/D will be fine. Broadcast Ave will be the anchor for the area, and will be busy. Between that and Radio Park, the area will be a busy place.
 
Are you referring to building construction? If so, it is a mix in both. In West District, the only fully concrete buildings are:
- Gateway 1 &2
- Plaza 1 & 2
- Oak & Olive
- Parkside
- The Quarters / HQ

Wood frame are:
- Mulberry
- Newberry 1 & 2
- Adelaide 1 & 2
- Mondrian 1 &2

I presume Wellington 1 &2 will be wood frame, and The Rise will be perhaps a mix of both, with the southern 6 storey portion being wood, and the tower portion being concrete.
Yes both Wellington buildings will be wood frame. They are massive, 208 units each. I do like that 60% of the units will be 2 bedroom or larger.
 
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Wellington
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Radio Park
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