northlands
Senior Member
A bit of civic leadership and vision is sure refreshing, considering I don't think anyone on current City Council has even bothered to make a statement about City Centre's insolvency.
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
TAS
Senior Member
One of Josan's properties is Connect Tower on Rice Howard Way (could Ice District not come up with different name other than Connect Centre for its nearby space?)
www.josanproperties.com
Website says this:
"Stay tuned for our exciting redevelopment plans, whereby a part of the building will be converted to residences along with a state-of-the-art amenity floor!"
Are residential conversion plans new or already happened?
Projects | Josan Properties
www.josanproperties.com
"Stay tuned for our exciting redevelopment plans, whereby a part of the building will be converted to residences along with a state-of-the-art amenity floor!"
Are residential conversion plans new or already happened?
northlands
Senior Member
Residential conversions are currently in-progress on the old PMK building.One of Josan's properties is Connect Tower on Rice Howard Way (could Ice District not come up with different name other than Connect Centre for its nearby space?)
Website says this:Projects | Josan Properties
"Stay tuned for our exciting redevelopment plans, whereby a part of the building will be converted to residences along with a state-of-the-art amenity floor!"
Are residential conversion plans new or already happened?
View attachment 674640
(who was Phipps McKinnon anyway?)
Gus Haynes
Active Member
Not new. That conversion was announced over a year ago, and work has already commenced on it.
dkazzed
Active Member
Odd, they just renovated the interior of that building and the occupancy rate was reasonable from what I observed.One of Josan's properties is Connect Tower on Rice Howard Way (could Ice District not come up with different name other than Connect Centre for its nearby space?)
Website says this:Projects | Josan Properties
"Stay tuned for our exciting redevelopment plans, whereby a part of the building will be converted to residences along with a state-of-the-art amenity floor!"
Are residential conversion plans new or already happened?
View attachment 674640
northlands
Senior Member
Yes they did a really nice podium reno back in maybe 2018. My understanding is the building lost some significant office leases as of late.
kcantor
Senior Member
Phipps is the surname of a son-in-law to the Guinness family in England and who was a prominent government advisor.
McKinnon is the surname of a senior officer/shareholder of Dominion Securities in Toronto who was the Canadian advisor to the Guinness family for their Canadian business interests.
Gronk!
Senior Member
Can we please talk about ECC now? 
edmonton.taproot.news
Visionary says Edmonton needs to look elsewhere to re-imagine its downtown mall
Now that Edmonton City Centre's ownership company has entered receivership, leaving the fate of the mall an open question, one American urban expert who toured our downtown recently said its 1.4-million square feet of retail and office space should be transformed into housing or something that...
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David A
Senior Member
Sorry, I remain skeptical of these American "experts". White Plains NY, which was mentioned in the article is a suburban ish city with a population similar to St. Albert.Can we please talk about ECC now?
Visionary says Edmonton needs to look elsewhere to re-imagine its downtown mall
Now that Edmonton City Centre's ownership company has entered receivership, leaving the fate of the mall an open question, one American urban expert who toured our downtown recently said its 1.4-million square feet of retail and office space should be transformed into housing or something that...
Our downtown currently has very little retail and I feel it is actually so bad that it is to the point of becoming a more of disincentive to attract more residents.
We may need to make some big changes to the mall, but further reducing retail in the area will not be beneficial, that is very delusional thinking.
JMatt88
Active Member
But isn't the problem also that retail does not want to locate downtown too?
David A
Senior Member
Yes that is also a big problem, the reasons for which have been discussed extensively here and elsewhere, but really have not yet been fixed by the city including: social disorder, safety concerns, tidiness and upkeep, attracting more corporate offices downtown). However you don't fix this by getting rid of the retail space still in use there.
ChazYEG
Senior Member
I think I understand her logic, I just don't think it is completely applicable to Edmonton.
If you reduce empty retail spaces and add more housing, you also tend to create a better environment for the remaining retail areas by increasing population. One thing she doesn't consider, however, is the climate, for example. Also the size and function of the cities she's comparing are not even remotely comparable.
If you reduce empty retail spaces and add more housing, you also tend to create a better environment for the remaining retail areas by increasing population. One thing she doesn't consider, however, is the climate, for example. Also the size and function of the cities she's comparing are not even remotely comparable.
Gronk!
Senior Member
They should just relocate the entirety of the west mall to the east mall except for the Delta Hotel, the Gateway cineplex and the pedway. Then they can redevelop the west mall and parkades into housing, an expanded Delta Hotel, sports/recreational facilities, pub/live venue/nightclub, food hall, and a Hudson's Bay museum.
yeggator
Senior Member
That’s what I’ve been saying. Although Ian O’s significant other vehemently disagrees with me cause she says the western half of the mall is nicer.
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
I think a conversion to residential to parts of the mall would automatically bring more customers, but I think one way to present the mall is to perhaps try an example I saw in Japan. The is a section of the mall at Skytree that is a whole bunch of restaurants and boutiques. The mall looks more like a market and the retail spaces aren't as big, which allows many more businesses to be situated there.
