Alberta appears headed for a mild and temporary recession this year, says a new report from CIBC World Markets.
The report, released Monday, forecasts the province’s annual economic growth will change from Canada’s best in 2014 (4.1 per cent) to the second worst in the nation this year, at negative 0.3 per cent. Newfoundland’s forecast is the worst, with real GDP expected to drop to a negative 1.3 per cent this year.
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EDMONTON – Mayor Don Iveson wore a hard hat and work gloves Tuesday to install the final solar panel on a new office building that sets a benchmark for energy efficiency.
The Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce, in Summerside, stands as “a testament to the fact that there is an intersection between commerce, between community, between our environment, and even beauty,” Iveson said at a celebration of the $10.5-million project.
“It even smells good,” Iveson said, standing in front of a three-storey wall of green plants in the building’s atrium.
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Plosz is senior vice-president at Hopewell and has been with the company for 16 years. He takes over UDI-Calgary’s top seat from Karin Finley and steps in at a time when work in land development faces a number of moving parts.
Part of the shift is with questions around lot supply.
“The development industry would look at it and the home builders would look at it and say ‘this is how many lots we think we have’ and the city would look at it from their geodemographics group and say ‘this is how many lots we think you have,’ ” says Plosz. “There was no comparing notes to (ask if) they’re the same numbers.”
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An elevated train system — which would be 15 meters above ground in the city centre, crossing over top of Plus-15 walkways — is one of four options councillors will discuss on Wednesday as they consider the pros and cons of different design scenarios for the future north-central LRT line.
The section in question would run through the city’s core, from 10th Avenue S. to approximately 24th Avenue N., ultimately extending Calgary’s LRT system from the city’s far north to the southeast hospital.
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Construction on Calgary’s newest skyscraper, the 66-story Telus Sky Tower, recently broke ground. The building, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is a 70,000-sm office and residential tower located adjacent to The Bow, a 237-meter-tall office block designed by Foster + Partners, according to Dezeen.
Telus Sky Tower will be the home of Telus, a telecommunication company, as well as 320 serviced residences. Additionally, there will be a 500-sm gallery for local artists and ground-floor retail.
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The city is looking to test the level of public support for the proposed $850-million Galleria project, a downtown arts and university complex kick-started with a promise of $50 million from city council.
An opinion survey was posted this week on the city website and two open houses will be held next week to discuss the massive project for the northeast edge of downtown.
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Leasing activity in Calgary’s industrial real estate market in 2014 was the highest it’s been in eight years.
A report by Colliers International in Calgary says there was just over five million square feet of absorption (the change in occupied space) last year — the highest yearly absorption since 2006.
Despite the high rate of absorption, only 500,000 square feet of new construction was added to the industrial inventory in the fourth quarter of last year, added the report.
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Vacancy rates in the downtown office market have risen significantly amid declining oil prices, says a new report by commercial real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank Devencore.
The report said the city’s downtown office market recorded negative absorption — the change in occupied space — of 561,700 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2014, the worst negative demand quarter in more than five years.
“As a result of the increase in vacant square footage, the vacancy rate increased by 1.4 per cent quarterly and 1.8 per cent annually,” said Michael Gigliuk, vice-president with the company.
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Health Minister Stephen Mandel says Calgary will get its cancer hospital. He almost guarantees it will be at the new South Health Campus, not the Foothills Hospital.
And he adds that it would be finished before 2020, the scheduled opening date for the now-deferred cancer centre at the Foothills Medical Centre.
Mandel talks conditionally because Premier Jim Prentice has ordered everyone not to release budget details. “I might get fired,” he jokes.
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The Edmonton area’s surging metro population is now larger than Ottawa-Gatineau, making it the fifth most populous urban region in Canada.
That’s according to the latest population data from Statistics Canada, which showed the Edmonton CMA (census metropolitan area) had 1,328,290 residents as of June 30, 2014, up 3.3 per cent over the previous 12 months.
The Edmonton CMA’s growth rate was the second-fastest in Canada over that period, trailing only Calgary’s 3.6 per cent uptick, and it was three times faster than the national growth rate of 1.1 per cent.
As usual, the Toronto CMA (6,055,724) remains the country’s most populous urban centre by a wide margin.
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IROL Alberta 