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On paper perhaps…. In the real world the actual quality of construction in the field seems to be worse than the previous lows in the early 2000’s. The proliferation of fly-by-night trades who can’t read or simply ignore design drawings and the willingness of some generals (who can be just as bad) and some owners to accept them based on price alone is not just disheartening it’s scary.

Municipalities don’t assume responsibility for what they’ve permitted, contract out and shift what staff they manage to keep around like crazy. Most people who have had any experience with them will tell you that home warranty programs are really in place and managed to protect the builders, not the purchasers.

The Condo Act might provide some recourse but it won’t provide for quality and that recourse will be after the fact, expensive and time consuming to pursue.

There have been some high profile disasters in the news recently both large and small demonstrating how most failures end up getting fixed by the owners if it doesn’t bankrupt them first.
I agree Ken, it's the residential construction side i have the most issues with. I always hated doing reviews on residential projects. Blatchford was my last major and I had to bite my tongue a lot ( thankfully I only had to comment on the district energy system connections). . Happy to be only doing the commercial side now. Not that we don't have issues but I can do something about it now.

I also found there were also some code inspection companies that did not have highly qualified people.
 
Boring, I know, but not everyday one sees a Costco expansion….

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I thought there was a general retail thread but couldn't find it. Looks like a new location possibility for winners is opening up.

Interesting. They had a good run for a while, this has been here 30 years or so, but the era of big box bookstores that started in the mid 90's seems to be winding down.
 
This is confusing. I wonder if the other building with very similar name quietly gave it up at some point on its meandering from a residential building to an office building then perhaps back, and just didn't tell anyone.
 
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Residents in the area of this large lot just north west of macewan were sent notices by the city that Westrich is applying to subdivide it, the limited plans I saw in a friends notice showed the footprints of 3 buildings that are likely typical 6 story builds
 
View attachment 629443Residents in the area of this large lot just north west of macewan were sent notices by the city that Westrich is applying to subdivide it, the limited plans I saw in a friends notice showed the footprints of 3 buildings that are likely typical 6 story builds
That's so exciting! I live nearby and noticed some grading happening in the fall; I was hoping it might be an indication for some movement on this site. It really sticks out like a sore thumb with all those new buildings around it, and three new apartment buildings will add some wonderful vibrancy to the area. I often see kids playing on the sculpture thing the city installed at that car-free zone of 105 Ave (the ground is composed of rubber matting, so the city definitely intended for kids to climb it), so hopefully these buildings have some 3-bedroom units to allow even more families to live here.

@IanO Is Westrich looking at this property at all? It's been for sale for a while now. If you guys did this on top of the Atco site, it'd almost complete 105 Ave all the way to 109 Street, and also be right in time for the Valley Line. Plus, it's across the street from Mainstreet's office, so that'd he one heck of a power move ;)

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