THE EV

(Image: First by Fram+Slokker)

East Village residential sales centre opening April 1
Developments could break ground by this summer
By Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald January 17, 2012

CALGARY — A sales and marketing centre for residential development in the East Village will open April 1.

Michael Brown, president and chief executive for Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, confirmed Tuesday that the 8,000-square-foot centre will educate interested Calgarians and future residents on the vision of East Village and will showcase the residential homes and product stylings of the area’s “pioneering” developer partners.

“This is the year when we grow up,” said Brown. “This is the year we focus on getting people engaged in the East Village.”

He said the first two residential condominium towers planned for the area could break ground by this summer.

Embassy Bosa is planning its 19-storey, 203-unit tower called FUSE.

Fram+Slokker is planning an 18-storey, 191-unit tower called FIRST.

The first residents are expected to move in by January 2014.

“Both of them in terms of both projects have a phasing approach they’re working toward. That phasing approach you could be looking at as far out as seven years in terms of complete phase build out. Our hope is, and I’m pretty optimistic, that they’ll achieve their sales to allow them to break ground this summer. So they’ll actually start on the construction of those projects,” said Brown.

To date, more than 7,000 people have registered their interest on the neighbourhood website to gain a sneek peek at the first residential offerings of East Village, said Brown.

“Now we’re at the point where we need to get the marketplace buying into it,” he said.

Combined, the two developers will eventually build 1,300 residential units in East Village. Bosa has plans for three towers. Fram+Slokker has plans for seven buildings.

At complete build out in a few years, the East Village neighbourhood will be home to about 11,500 residents.

Brown said recent research has indicated the area can accommodate up to 440,000 square feet of retail development and delivery of retail is the focus of attention for this year.

In the spring, CMLC will announce plans for the historic Simmons Building which has been around for 100 years and is 17,394 square feet. There will be four uses for the building including retail as well as food and beverage.

“Simmons is a jewel today and will be a jewel tomorrow,” said Brown.

Michael Kehoe, an Alberta-based retail specialist with Fairfield Commercial Real Estate Inc., said East Village will be an attractive area for retail development.

“The visible progress on the infrastructure side in the exciting transformation of the East Village into a densely-populated urban village is catching the eye of retailers and amenity-style service tenants eager to be part of the action,” he said. “The old saying that ‘retail follows the rooftops’ will certainly be the case in the East Village over the next three to five years. As the major condo towers are erected and populated, expect an armada of retail and food service brands and local business ventures to set up shop.”

This year promises to be a busy one for CMLC and the East Village development. It will complete Phase 3 of the RiverWalk project — the area of the promenade stretching behind Fort Calgary following the Bow River and Elbow River to 9th Avenue S.E. — about 400 metres in length.

CMLC will begin work on several of the neighbourhood’s urban parks, particularly 5th Street Square and Celebration Square.

The St. Patrick’s Island Bridge and island redevelopment program will begin this year and has been budgeted by CMLC at $45 million.

Construction of the new pedestrian/cyclist bridge to St. Patrick’s Island and Bridgeland will begin in March and the overall completion is scheduled for the fall of 2013.

(Image: Fuze by Embassy Bosa)