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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 3:34 PM
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housing in Calgary

I guess I'm attracted to really nice or really bad photo opps, so this is by no means representational of the housing stock in Calgary.
For the years 2002-2006, Calgary has averaged 14,500 housing starts a year.
http://www.calgaryeconomicdevelopmen...rts_QHh8BW.cfm

The Bridges, phase 1. Urban redevelopment across the river from downtown where the Calgary General Hospital was until the provincial government imploded it. They are now spending $2 billion expanding the 3 existing general hospitals as well as a new downtown health centre and renovating the old Children's Hospital and other capital projects, and building a new south hospital for $1.2 billion.
Phase 2 of The Bridges is about to start construction, it seems to be taking forever.



Olive - live-work condos in The Bridges. I looked at the show suite about 4 years ago and thought it was overpriced, I think it was something like $389,000. Now it would be maybe double? I have no idea of the prices now.


Olive - inner courtyard. There is underground parking, the main floor can be used as an office, living room and kitchen are on the second floor, 2 or 3 bedrooms on the 3rd floor and a rooftop deck.


The Piazza at The Bridges



Westend condos. In the foreground is the former planetarium now called the Science Centre.



Garrison Woods, the former housing for the former military base has been redeveloped by a federal government agency with private developers doing the actual building.


Garrison Woods, shopping and residential


Silverado, a new subdivision south of 22X and west of MacLeod Trail

sold sold sold in Silverado



Seniors' housing



from Broadcast Hill/Patterson looking east last spring


Springbank, where the Deere and the antelope play! Allegedly the richest postal code in Canada.


Springbank


this place is a survivor on 4 St SW. It seems easier to flatten old places and put up a parking lot than to renovate.


another old-timer on 1 St SW


The Blow Block, Inglewood. Calgary's oldest neighbourhood


Inglewood. This isn't really housing, but I had friends who lived in a really cool loft in here!


The back of Crump Manor, Inglewood


Atlantic Avenue, Inglewood. I didn't see the dude in the window until I saw the pic on the computer. Henri's, which no one will miss, has been knocked down for a proposed mixed use building with main floor retail including a Starbucks and apartments above.


McGill Block condos, Inglewood. The original structure was gutted by a fire in the mid-eighties and re-built. The loft style apartments were later converted into condo ownership.


The "property ladder", Inglewood


A new mansion behind the stone wall on Elbow drive.


Mayfair Place, rental apartments. The police aren't always there.



This house on 4 ave is now gone


the city has issued over 600 demolition permits this year, but squatters burnt this place before it could be torn down


west end condos from the north bank of the Bow river


Great house numbers for pizza delivery at night!


Loony NIMBYs, its not a park it is a utility right-of-way. It was originally planned to be a freeway, they should be ecstatic that it has been shelved. Avi is a local builder.


5 West condos, east tower u/c in July.


above the Bow river, just southeast of Calgary


Princeton Estates phase 2, swanky condos overlooking Prince's Island Park in Eau Claire downtown


Crestmont looking towards the NW


"Tuscany" NW , the Prime Minister of Canada and family live there when he isn't running the country in Ottawa.


Springbank Hill


possibly connected to the addiction treatment centre next door


there are a few thousand homeless people here


"Chocolate" condos


La Caille on the Bow condos, Eau Claire


The Hamptons, a golf course community in NW


Stanley House, former mansion turned into offices in lower Mount Royal


Once and future housing. Houses from the former military base that will be placed on new foundations and re-habbed.



Garrison Green


Garrison Green sales office


former officer's housing



Peacekeeper Park, Garrison Green


Churchill Estates, one bedrooms starting at over $700,000. They must not be selling very well.


Eau Claire condos on the Bow river bike path at Prince's Island



Lougheed House, now restored and featuring a restaurant.


Vantage Pointe condos as seen from Millenium Park


arriVa


Col. Walker House, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary



First street condos - Union Square (first of 2 towers) and Colours


Little boxes on the hillside...
Rocky Ridge NW


Ramsay SE


the new Stampede Casino wraps around this old apartment building


Signal Hill SW, the Calgary regiments put their regimental numbers on the hillside laid out with rocks before they departed for WW2.


one of our homeless shelters http://www.cdics.com


Signal Hill


Brava (occupied), Encore (sold out), and Ovation (u/c and for sale)


Copperwood, the largest and last of 12 buildings in the project


London (tower 1 sold out), tower 2 (for sale), towers 3 & 4 and retail still to come


Vetro (sold out) & Sasso (occupied). Vetro is about 10 floors higher than Sasso.


Queen's Park Village NW - rentals built in the 1970s


Britannia SW


Belair SW


Riverdale Avenue SW.


a new McMansion backing on to the Elbow River


Riverdale Avenue SW

a comment on this house on Flickr from Pnwra:
This house does a number of things right that I wish more people would do.
The design is modern, instead of the typical tacky fake heritage styles. Fake architecture is always tacky, real architecture is classy.
The house is close to the sidewalk in front of it, making it friendly and inviting. Front yards are fairly useless anyway, bringing the house forward to maximize the backyard makes more sense because people actually use their backyards.
Lots of big windows facing the street also make it friendly and inviting, and shows that the owners are interested in being part of their neighbourhood.
The garage is minimized and set off to the side, because big prominent garages make houses ugly and unfriendly.
The fence is low, because any fence below waist height is friendly, whereas any fence above waist height becomes more and more unfriendly the higher it gets.



The Coste Mansion, Mount Royal SW.
Their next door neighbour is the official residence of the Consul General of the United States, so they fly the stars and stripes of course.
Americans are not our biggest immigrant community as I stated previously. Sorry for the misinformation! We have immigrants from all over the world, including me.


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Last edited by Jimby; Jun 15, 2011 at 3:02 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 3:56 PM
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Talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. Fascinating tour, livingforthecity. Very comprehensive.
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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 3:56 PM
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Cool to see all these different type of housing going on in Calgary. Nice effort and great photos.
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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 4:15 PM
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great thread - what a mixture! some beautiful, some terrible, but all interesting...
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  #5  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 6:07 PM
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A boomtown cools down
After months of full-throttle growth, Calgary's economy is braking a bit -- and many Calgarians are glad to catch their breath
Gary Lamphier, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 6:25 am

CALGARY - Some days I feel old -- really old. Like today.
I'm sitting in the sun-splashed boardroom of a small real estate office on 17th Ave. S.W., chatting with a friendly young realtor named Kacey Fotopoulos about the state of Calgary's housing market.
Since local house prices peaked earlier this year after a record-busting run, buyers have dried up, prices have slid and new listings have soared. With some residents cashing out and heading home to Saskatchewan or the Maritimes, Calgary's once-torrid housing market has stalled.
"From January to June I felt like a rock star," says Fotopoulos, who works for Century 21 Bamber Realty. "Now, there's so much to choose from, buyers can take their time. It's not unheard of for people to offer $100,000 under list."
Some buyers are scoring incredible deals, she notes. After sitting on the market for 111 days, one new two-bedroom condo in northwest Calgary recently sold for $255,000 -- $64,000 below the initial list price. A luxury executive condo in trendy Eau Claire recently sold for $450,000 -- $150,000 below the asking price.
For Fotopoulos, who was born and raised in Calgary, Canada's perennial boomtown, these are uncharted waters. After four years in the real estate game, she has only seen local house prices go in one direction: straight up.
Until now. Ditto for her friends. For most, it's their first taste of anything vaguely resembling a slowdown.
"Calgarians just aren't used to this," she says. "They got very greedy. Now, they have to realize if they want a nice, balanced market, they have to price more appropriately, they need patience, and their realtor has to work a lot harder."
I ask Fotopoulos how old she is. She's 28. That's when this 53-year-old business columnist starts feeling his age.
Back in 1976, three years before Fotopoulos was born, and nearly 30 years before 17th Ave. S.W. was rechristened The Red Mile in honour of its beer-guzzling, breast-baring Flames fans, I called this neighbourhood home.
I didn't stay long, mind you. Just six months. Long enough to make a few friends -- mainly from the Maritimes, which even then exported thousands of young people to booming Alberta, where they worked for companies like Gulf Canada, PanCanadian Petroleum and Norcen Energy.
Since media jobs were scarce, I headed to Vancouver before returning to Ontario, where I broke into the newspaper business in 1978. Still, during the 1980s and 1990s, while living in Toronto and again, Vancouver, I remained a regular visitor to Calgary.
As a reporter, I spent many weeks holed up in local hotels, interviewing CEOs and banging out profiles of long-gone companies like Sceptre Resources, Renaissance Energy, BP Canada, Ranger Oil and Canadian Airlines.
Through it all, I watched Calgary grow up and out, physically and metaphorically. I witnessed booms and busts, chronicled the city's corporate successes and flops, watched new office towers sprout like weeds, and interviewed local icons like Daryl (Doc) Seaman, Dick Haskayne, Bob Blair and Jim Buckee.
I've always admired Calgary's swagger, its chutzpah, and its muscular sense of self-confidence. It's a city that doesn't take no for an answer. It believes in its own destiny, and demands to be taken seriously as a world-class city.
The results of all this striving are obvious. Calgary outstripped Vancouver as Western Canada's corporate capital long ago. As home to the current prime minister and his ideological soulmates, Calgary has also elbowed its way into the nation's political consciousness.
The city's top energy giants -- EnCana, Imperial Oil and Husky -- now rival many of the largest financial players on Bay Street. With oil prices nearing $100 US a barrel, and oilsands production poised to quadruple by 2030, Calgary's status as one of world's top energy capitals seems certain to grow.
More than one-quarter of Canada's best-paid CEOs call Calgary home. The dusty, decidedly unhip prairie burg I left in 1977 is long gone.
Today, Calgary screams with affluence and sophistication, from its mansion-filled suburbs to the designer shops, upscale restaurants and luxury car dealerships that rim the city core. Even within the confines of booming Alberta, Calgary seems increasingly like a world unto itself, unhinged from the humble prairie landscape from which it sprung.
There's also an angry, edgy side to Calgary these days. Despite its prosperity and rippling self-confidence, there's a sense the rest of Alberta doesn't "get" the city, or fully appreciate its considerable economic contributions to Canada's most prosperous province.
Rookie Tory Premier Ed Stelmach's recent decision to boost oil and gas royalties on the heels of an independent panel's report was merely the biggest flashpoint in what's shaping up to be an ongoing tussle between oilpatch interests and those of regular Albertans.
In the office towers of downtown Calgary, what's good for the oil and gas sector has always been regarded as synonymous with what's best for Alberta. That hasn't changed a bit. But public sentiment has clearly shifted. And that's left many oilpatch veterans feeling bitter.
David Yager, CEO of HSE Integrated Ltd., a TSX-listed oilfield services firm, calls the royalty panel's report "an atomic bomb" that triggered a chain of events that will decimate conventional oil and gas drilling activity in Alberta.
"There's a sense of shock, rage and betrayal," he says. "It's like Jonestown without the Kool-Aid. To use (royalty panel chairman) Bill Hunter's words, I think we pay our fair share."
In a lowrise old bank building next to Bankers Hall, Peter Linder, a veteran energy fund manager and former oil and gas analyst, echoes Yager's outrage. He calls Stelmach's plan to boost royalties by $1.4 billion in 2009 insane.
"This is the dumbest thing the Alberta government has done, possibly in the history of this province," he fumes, noting that conventional natural gas producers have been grappling with rising costs and falling prices for two years.
"What they should have done was address the fiscal regime pertaining to new oilsands developments. That was the big issue. Had they solely done that, things would be fine. But they've caused a lot of consternation. And it's solely for political reasons."
Linder says he understands the jealousy regular working stiffs might feel while fuzzy-cheeked oilpatch millionaires drive around in luxury cars or buy splashy ski pads in Canmore. But he says people should consider the big picture. "This is my biggest pet peeve, these people who are jealous. And there are lots of them. They don't understand what's going on.
"They're also benefiting -- through access to hospitals, better roads, education and so on. If we didn't have the industry boom, we wouldn't have the revenues to build these hospitals. We might even have to introduce a sales tax."
Calgary's business community isn't all about oil and gas, of course. The city is also becoming a vital hub for financial services, distribution, transportation and high-tech, says David Bissett, founder of Bissett Asset Management.
The Calgary philanthropist has watched his city mature far beyond its roots. He sees the recent slump in natural gas prices and residential real estate as little more than speed bumps.
"There's huge fundamental long-term demand for housing," Bissett says. "Some speculators and builders will have some temporary difficulties, but I think it's just a readjustment process."
Ditto for the conventional side of the oilpatch, he reckons, which is simply undergoing a "typical cyclical adjustment" before gas prices recover. As for the screams from some oilpatch execs about royalties, Bissett calls it "overdone."
So what's the outlook for Calgary? I didn't talk to a single soul who didn't feel absolutely certain the city has an extraordinarily positive future. Higher royalties or not. Sagging house prices or not.
"Calgary is still hot. There's all this talk about it being less hot, but it's still a very hot market," says Art Price, CEO of Axia NetMedia Corp.
Over at Spolumbo's Fine Foods & Deli in Inglewood, where former Calgary Stampeder Tony Spoletini serves the city's best Italian sausage to well-dressed oilpatch execs and busy soccer moms alike, I hear the same thing.
"I think people here feel very lucky and blessed," he says. "If you've got some drive and a bit of a work ethic, you can make things happen. There's lots of opportunity, there's a lot of money around."
"I think it might be slower in 2008, but if you compare 2008 with prior years, I think there's still going to be growth. I just don't think it's going to be as huge.
"In a way, a lot of people might be a little relieved."
glamphier@thejournal.canwest.com

?? The Edmonton Journal 2007




November 13, 2007 CITYBEAT - CITY OF CALGARY PRESS RELEASE
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Already $4.9B and Counting in Estimated Construction for 2007

Calgary, AB ??? Calgary has reached a new record in the history
of its construction value, said City officials as they
released building permit figures for October, noting another
monster year for construction in Calgary.

While residential totals fell slightly this month from the
same time last year, non-residential construction values for
October reached $495M, up 42 per cent from October 2006.

Calgary???s year to date total construction value currently
sits at $4.95B, compared to the 2006 year-end total of
$4.76B.

???The fact that we still have two months left in the calendar
year, and have already surpassed last year???s total
construction values gives a clear picture of just how hot the
building and development climate is in Calgary,??? said David
Watson, The City???s General Manager of Planning, Development &
Assessment.

Permit applications for several significant construction
projects were received in October, including office and
warehouse projects like Eighth Avenue Place, Glenmore
Professional Centre (Phase 2), Great Plains Distribution
Centre and Millard Refigerated Services (Phase 1).
Residential projects included Ascent and Bella Casa apartment
housing. Additionally, an application for the new District
#1 police station was received in October.

Building permits are a barometer of intentions in the
construction industry and are not actual construction
starts.
________
Herbal Aire Reviews

Last edited by Jimby; May 12, 2011 at 7:53 AM.
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  #6  
Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 6:24 PM
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This thread reeks of good... and EVIL

Good compilation LFTC. Do you live in Sunnyside? (that building next to the smashed fence looks like the fire hall)
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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 6:56 PM
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Thanks everyone for your comments.
Chris, no I don't live in Sunnyside, I'm on the fringe of Kelvin Grove, 68 Ave & Elbow Drive SW.
The fence had just been replaced by the city as part of the Glenmore/Elbow Drive road widening on 68 Avenue/5 street project, and amazingly enough, the city promptly repaired the damage for us and gave us a can of stain for next time!
Coincidentally, I used to drive a Neon (no secret that they are easy to steal)which was stolen from the parking lot at home (on the other side of that brown fence) and found 3 days later in Killarney with the groceries still in the trunk. The insurance company wrote it off as the ashtray was full and there was garbage on the floor.
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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 10:58 PM
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Very interesting to see... However at the same time frightening, talk about sprawl, with no end in site.

Quote:
Tuscany" NW , the Prime Minister of Canada and family live there when he isn't running the country in Ottawa.
Steve must spent a lot of time in Tuscany
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Old Posted Nov 13, 2007, 11:39 PM
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Interesting tour. I like seeing the older areas of Calgary, and some of the new condos look pretty good.
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  #10  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 1:04 AM
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Superb.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 1:20 AM
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Nice pics!
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  #12  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 1:40 AM
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Thank you Living, but where do you get the idea that Americans are our biggest immigrant group? There are (supposedly) tens of thousand of Americans living here, a "fact" purported by the US Consulate but not supported at all by census figures- but many, probably the vast majority, of these are not "immigrants." In 2005, 2.1% of immigrants were American, which puts in it 8th place among all countries. 18% of immigrants to Calgary came from India.

Among older immigrants, among those who arrived before 1961, 87% were from Europe, the vast majority of those from the UK. You might thus be able to say that the largest "immigrant group" is British, but I doubt that's true any more, since many pre-1961 arrivals are now dead. It's probably Chinese but might be Indian. It is NOT REMOTELY American.
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  #13  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 2:12 AM
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There are a lot of Americans in Calgary but furry's right --- there's no way that they make up the largest immigrant group in the city. That title would go to either Chinese or Indians.

Thanks for the comprehensive tour.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 2:25 AM
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Some of those housing estates look like Oshawa on steroids.
Interesting post.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 3:03 AM
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Great compilation.

In the summer of '99, my one and only time seeing Calgary, I drove through some of the southern parts of town and could not believe the scale of the vast housing developments being built there.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 3:11 AM
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Geat tour! Are there any plans to build something interesting?
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  #17  
Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 5:01 AM
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Yes there are big plans to build something interesting, but we're waiting for Toronto to build something interesting so we can copy it, only we'll make it more interesting than theirs.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 5:08 AM
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Wow man you get around! Please keep it up, I really enjoy your pictures and descriptions.
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 8:03 AM
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Great thread and pics!
The commentary to go along with the photos is nice, too.
Keep on snappin!
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Old Posted Nov 14, 2007, 8:32 AM
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very interesting
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