Gateway Midtown
One of the first condo projects to be halted because of the economic downturn has been restarted this week.
“This is symbolic,”Ald. John Mar said of work relaunching. “It was the first site to stop work. It’s the first site to restart.”
Crews are now working on the six-level underground parkade and will eventually build to street level, where a floor of commercial space will be leased out. Those portions of the project are expected to cost around $50 million. Half the commercial space is already leased to a well-known national chain.
Calgary Herald, May 29 2009
Brian Stoddard, CEO of Pointe of View, the project’s developer (Pointe of View took over the project in March) goes on to say in the article: “We’re sensing that the market is turning around, so we think the timing is appropriate for us to have a successful project there.”
About Gateway-Midtown
The 650 unit Gateway-Midtown property was originally owned by developer Resiance, but walked away last fall after saying the project was “financially unfeasible.” Spokesman Shael Gelfand had said that it was “primarily due to rising costs for labour and for materials. Its just made it too expensive.” The decision had affected a lot of buyers and investors. More than 500 of the 650 units had been sold. (Source)
However, the excavation for the foundation had already been completed. Sinkholes began developing in late April and led to a section of 4th Street S. W. being shut down for nearly two weeks. Concerns for the shoring on the walls of the site arose.
Why has the project restarted?
My initial thought was that Pointe of View was forced to go forward due to safety concerns. Piecing together various news tidbits from articles regarding the sinkholes:
- It’s left the city trying to balance safety concerns with efforts to encourage continued building. “We’re trying to protect safety and we’re trying to also assist in keeping development going,”Mayor Dave Bronconnier said.
- City staff are in discussions with the owners of two of the sites about at least bringing the project up to ground level.
- Holes in the city’s core are of the biggest concern, because of their depth and their proximity to neighbours and infrastructure, including roads, sidewalks, water and sewer pipes. With the rivers flowing nearby there is a different groundwater concern than in other areas, as well.
- “You can’t leave shoring there like that forever because there’s always a concern that the shoring might fail and the road is going to end up slipping into the site”
But apparently it was not a safety issue. I was told that it was their decision (PoV) to start going forward, though the city certainly prefers they build for site stability. Apparently, they’re going to go right to the west tower after the commercial level is done, so it doesn’t appear they’re stopping at just the main level, which was another one of my thoughts.
This is interesting since another condo project, the Skytower, has also been beleagured in construction purgatory, but its developers have a different viewpoint:
May 9, 2009: Robert Cohen, president of Diamond-Trust Towers Corp., which is building Sky Tower, said there are no plans to resume construction in the near future.
“The economy in Calgary doesn’t justify development right now,” he said from Montreal, adding they plan to leave the site as is. “We’ll make sure it’s nice and safe. We’ll leave it that way for now.”
However, with 500+ out of the 650 units of the Gateway-Midtown apparently already being sold, perhaps they have the required capital to continue in light of reduced building costs.
Have You Purchased A Gate-Midtown (now Encore) Unit?
If you had purchased a Gateway-Midtown condo, I’d like for you to share you story – did you get your deposit back when it was halted? Is your deposit still in trust? Have you received any word on the status of your unit?
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Other Sources:
“Work begins again on stalled condo project” – Calgary Herald, May 29, 2009
Contruction craters a headache for City Hall – Calgary Herald, May 9, 2009
Second sinkhole forces Beltline condo evacuation – Calgary Herald, May 5, 2009
Sinkhole forces downtown road closure – Calgary Herald, April 25, 2009
Should a seller have a home inspection done prior to listing (usually called a ‘pre-inspection’) to help with the sale of their home?
