BUSINESS COMMUNITY SETS ITS SIGHTS ON 2020
New Year’s greetings always offer good wishes for the months ahead and, despite the many continued setbacks, our business people are resilient and determined to make this year a successful one.
It’s a pity that small business, always heralded as the cement that binds our economy together, has been so hard hit, particularly by city hall as soaring taxes have forced many to shut down over the past year.
Restaurants suffered a heavy toll, yet more opened and I look forward to enjoying a local craft beer at the soon-to-be-opened Free House in Kensington Crescent, where — thank goodness — we are promised smaller portions of pub food. A pint and a pickled egg make a good lunch.
We can also look forward to another Concorde restaurant opening in the recently completed, very attractive M2 building in East Village. It will boast the best summer outdoor patio in the city, overflowing onto the banks of the Bow.
That area has been booming and will become more alive and acceptable as a residential area when the grocery store opens in the Riocan development across from the back side of Bow Valley College.
The first grocery store in decades in the community will be not only welcomed by the growing number of East Village residents, but a blessing to those living in Inglewood/ramsay and Bridgeland.
I can remember a Safeway store there and the long-gone
No. 1 Co-op store on 11th Avenue in the Beltline; the number of new residences being built in the inner city will appreciate a nearby place to buy their groceries.
It’s exciting to see so many cranes again downtown, although most will provide new apartment units. And that’s good because we need more people living downtown for the benefit of retailers and restaurants, as well as allowing more people to cycle or walk to work.
Telus Sky might be the last office tower to be built in the core for some time, but it also includes 30 floors of high-end residential suites. Over on 12th Avenue at the corner of Macleod Trail, the first phase of the One Properties mixed-use development is underway, which upon completion will add another 650 residential units — plus 16,500 square feet of retail. And at the opposite end of downtown, the first tower of the Cidex Group’s West Village development has topped off; three towers on the former Stampede Pontiac site overlooking Shaw Millennium Park means another 554 units.
More classy residential developments are being planned, which bodes well for downtown and speaks well of the confidence of developers in this city.
We will also see a continuation of a healthy suburban sector in 2020, with lots of action in industrial, office and retail leasing. Major malls are mostly full except for a few smaller units, and shoppers at Market Mall are looking forward to the opening of the Landmark Cinemas on the west side of the property.
But some of the most exciting developments will be getting underway in surrounding communities.
Residents of Okotoks will welcome the Firehall Distillers in the downtown area, and also within town boundaries Burnswest has announced its Southbank Business District overlooking the Sheep River. In Cochrane, the same company is going ahead with its Greystone residential and light industrial development on its former gravel lands, while PBA Land is managing a 545-acre Southbow Landing master-planned community on the south side of the river. Chestermere is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada and that growth will continue with the recent purchase of 580 acres of land on the east side along the Trans-canada Highway.
Their growth is also good for this city; for our retail industry and also for our employment sector, with perhaps people driving against the inbound traffic flow to ease our major arteries.
Although many people are still hurting due to layoffs, some have been able to use their brains and experience on other industries; particularly in high-tech, in which this city is home to some world-class companies.
This is a sector that must be supported; David Bisset made a wonderful $30-million donation to SAIT to develop a future school for advanced technology, but graduates will disappear if there are no jobs available.
The biggest problem is finding capital, so I hope Calgary Economic Development will offer some of its $100-million investment fund to local companies in need of a boost.