Council approves design concept for vacant lot
Medicine Hat council members have unanimously accepted a concept for a city-driven mixed-use development for a long-vacant lot downtown.
However during a vocal debate about the next planning stage for the $40-million project, councillors said it was time for a cautious approach but the planning should continue.
Two others say that another $450,000 for advanced engineering work and market study is a bridge too far at the moment.
The building — title The Bridge by winning design firm CEI Architects — would consist of two five-story blocks, one each for offices and residential condos, both above ground floor shops and underground parking.
Connected by a flat top common roof, the link would create a breezeway mall across Riverside Veterans Memorial and the arch representing the river crossings in Medicine Hat.
City contracted project managers MHPM call the building modern and unique, as did Mayor Ted Clugston, who made a campaign issue out of developing the lot that has sat vacant since the late 1970s.
“This council has the courage to make decisions that have been talked about for 40 years,” said Clugston. “Some things the city has to do, like replacing the Arena, but the city doesn’t have to get involved in a mixed-use complex. This is leading edge and visionary.”
Councillors unanimously accepted the design as the best of three submitted through a design competition begun by the city last year. In a related item, a 7-2 vote allocated $450,000 for further design work on the high-concept drawings, market analysis and seeking out a private sector developer to partner with the city.
But Councillors Les Pearson and Jim Turner cast nay votes arguing that the city should concentrate spending on high priority construction projects and rebuilding city reserves.
“This is leading edge and visionary.” – Mayor Ted Clugston
“Is there a market for luxury condos downtown next to a railroad? I doubt that,” Pearson told council stressing that the city’s financial position has changed since the council backed a city-led development in 2013.
“That was before berms, before the seniors centre and before the economic crash.”
Couns. Bill Cocks and Jamie McIntosh said the phased approval process meant the whole investment would only take place if conditions were right.
Coun. Robert Dumanowski said the time is right to back growth downtown.
“We have to be good stewards of the public purse, but we also have to have a vision,” he told council adding that public projects like the Esplanade or Event Centre always come with controversy.
Coun. Julie Friesen said progressing the plans will allow the city to approve the entire project when it makes sense economically.
“This is not the time to do it, but if we’re not ready we’ll be way behind,” she said.
Turner said that he is concerned with city spending.
“The answer has always been the same; this in not economical,” said Turner before citing several previous conditions of developers, either in reduced land price, vastly reduced servicing fees or guaranteed rental agreements.
“The public is telling us to rein in spending.”
Several attempts by private developers in the last 10 years to purchase the land and develop the property have fallen through.
Most recently, local firm Cambridge Investments backed out saying the market wouldn’t handle the rents required to make blocks economical.
Last August council approved a design competition, wherein three short-listed firms would create general schematics and estimates.
The concept is based on criteria set out by the city, but the final design could be somewhat different, depending on cost or the involvement of a private development partner, said project manager Derek Weiss, of MPHM.
“It’s a very modern vision for the city,” said Weiss of the Bridge. “It’s a modern interpretation of very traditional elements.”
CEI Architects is headquartered in Vancouver with a branch office in Calgary. They were established in 1996.