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BOMA Calgary News 1
BOMA CALGARY NEWS SUMMER 2009
Page 1 - Offi ce Market Forecasts: True or False? | Page 3 - President’s Message | Page 4 - A Refreshing Outlook for Transportation
Page 5 - Conservative Territory | Page 6 - Who’s Who in the Zoo! | Page 8 - Money Down the Drain | Page 10 - David Parker
The continuing economic downturn has generated many doom-and-gloom forecasts, and Canada’s ma-jor downtown offi ce markets have not been immune
from grim forecasts. Recent reports of dramatic increases in the amount of
sublet available space in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto may not tell the whole story, and without historical con-text may, in fact, be misleading.
SUBLET SPACE SOARING?In Calgary, the amount of sublet
space across the city has increased by over 500,000 square feet since the be-ginning of the year and now stands at around 1.1 million square feet. How-ever, this is almost exactly the same amount of sublet space that was avail-able in late 2004, immediately prior to the beginning of three years of space
absorption that began to reverse as new supply began to be completed. It should also be noted that current sublet levels are well below the historic average.
Vancouver has seen a similar, but less dramatic, shift from sublet rates which hovered around two per cent in 2004, shrank to virtually zero in 2007 and now approach the levels of late 2004. A lack of signifi cant new supply,
Offi ce Market Forecasts: True or False?
By Sandy McNair and Kevin Antaya, Altus InSite
BOMA Calgary News 2
BOMA Calgary NewsBOMA Calgary News is a co-publication of BOMA Calgary and Business in Calgary.
Business in Calgary 1025, 101 - 6 Ave. SW, Calgary, AB T2P 3P4
Email: [email protected]: www.businessincalgary.com
BOMA Calgary120, 4954 Richard Road SW, Calgary, AB T3E 6L1
CHAIRPaul Gauthier, Fujitec
MEMBERSBlair Carbert, Stones Carbert Waite LLPMichael Kehoe, Fairfi eld CommercialMiles Durrie, Calgary HeraldCarol Lewis, Calgary HeraldDarlene Davis, Calgary HeraldJames Harvie, TELUS Convention Centre
Offi cersPRESIDENTGuy Priddle, MBA, RPA, BLJCFacility Management
VICE PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT-ELECTPeter MacHardy, GWL Realty Advisors Inc.
2ND VICE PRESIDENTBentall LP
SECRETARY TREASURERTom Sullivan, GWL Realty Advisors Inc.
PAST-PRESIDENT Wendy Cardell, The Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd.
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENTWilliam G. R. Partridge, CAE
DirectorsChris Howard, Howco Realty AdvisorsDomenic Mazzocchi, 20 Vic Management Inc.Gerry Jobagy, Hopewell Real Estate ServicesGlen Kitteringham, Brookfield Properties CorporationLee Thiessen, Altus Group Michael Kehoe, Fairfield Commercial Real Estate
Servpro Cleaning
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Calgary publishes BOMA Calgary News quarterly. For advertising rates and information contact Business in Calgary. Publication of advertising should not be deemed as endorsement by BOMA Calgary. The publisher reserves the right in its sole and absolute discretion to reject any advertising at any time submitted by any party. Material contained herein does not necessarily refl ect the opinion of BOMA Calgary, its members or its staff.
© 2009 by BOMA Calgary.Printed in Canada.
especially in the downtown market, is a major factor in softening the im-pact of reduced demand.
On the surface, it may seem that the amount of sublet in Toronto is rising more slowly, but Canada’s larg-est offi ce market has historically had higher levels of sublet, with the rate over the past fi ve years ranging from 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Even with a relatively large increase since the beginning of the year, sublet now stands at around 2.0 per cent. This is close to the historic average, but well below the peak of almost 3.0 per cent in 2003.
NEW SUPPLY SNAPSHOTBoth Toronto and Calgary currently
have relatively large amounts of new supply underway, with a total of al-most 14 million square feet currently under construction (see table oppo-site). At the time many of these new projects were announced, new supply in both markets had been moderate and the outlook for demand was positive. Put into perspective, the amount of new supply in Calgary for the fi ve-year period starting in 2007 is about half of the amount that was added during the prior cyclical peak between 1979 and 1983.
In Toronto, the difference is even more dramatic, with the amount of space in the same fi ve-year period beginning in 2007 being equal to less than 25 per cent of the total space added to the Toronto market during the prior cyclical peak between 1988 and 1992.
This is not to say that Calgary and Toronto will be immune from downward pressure on rents and an increased focus by tenants on reducing operating expenses in a re-covering economy.
What is very likely is that the new towers in both cities will be leased up at the expense of existing stock and that each market and sub-mar-ket has its own story and dynamics, with the winners and losers yet to be determined.
Altus InSite’s mission is to ac-celerate the differentiation of commercial real estate offerings and services by establishing credible criteria and processes that identify, measure, improve, recognize and re-ward the performance of buildings, owners, managers, occupants and their advisers, suppliers and service providers. For more information, please visit altusinsite.com.
NEW SUPPLY SNAPSHOT
CALGARY
TORONTO
7,387,240
6,431,047
4,385,511
4,103,552
3,001,729
2,327,495
TOTAL UNDERCONSTRUCTION
AREA(sf)
PRE-LEASEDAREA(sf)
TOTALAVAILABLE
AREA(sf)
BOMA Calgary News 3
ENERGYENVIRONMENT
SOLUTIONS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
By Guy Priddle, MBA, President
Harbinger of Things to Come
As we near the end of the second quarter of 2009, it’s interesting to refl ect on the local, region-
al and global economic situations. For much of 2008, as the United States and the rest of the world sank deeper into recession, we felt that Canada was go-ing to remain largely immune to the effects. That belief was much more tangible in Alberta, and to some de-gree remains so.
It was very encouraging to hear that in the internal annual reports of some major companies that, in spite of the deepening recession, they would do all they could to retain staff. They believed that although the recession will cost companies some profi t mar-gin, preserving that margin in part by eliminating people was short sighted. The diffi culty in fi nding quality people to fi ll vacancies over the past three to fi ve years, again particularly in the West, was being considered against the potential reduction in profi ts. Com-panies were committing to retaining people through the tough economic times, taking a longer view of their investment in human capital and not panicking.
On the face of it the commitment to people over profi ts is laudable. That notwithstanding, it will inevita-bly get another look, particularly if the recession digs deeper. At times it is comforting to look at the positive indicators: oil at +$52 and trending – slowly – upwards; the Canadian dollar at + USF$0.82, and trending upwards; natural gas at – well, at least holding its own at $4; the Alberta and Sas-katchewan economies projecting real GDP growth over the next couple of years in spite of the recession.
From an article in a recent edition of The Economist1, though, the plight of General Growth Properties (GGP) in the United States carries particular signifi cance for our industry. GGP is the second largest owner of retail malls in the U.S. and in April were forced to fi le
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection essentially as a result of their fi nancing structure. Following a major acquisition in 2004, GGP was carrying signifi cant short-term debt that it could not ser-vice because of the illiquid nature of the debt. It is a scenario that is eerily similar to that which caused the fall of Olympia & York – positive income gen-eration from high-quality properties will not protect against bankruptcy if the debt service obligations cannot be met due to a lack of available cash.
More signifi cant though is the pending exposure that resides in the commercial mortgage sector. The Economist refers to an estimate of Foresight Analytics, a research group, which suggests almost USD$600 bil-lion of commercial mortgages will be maturing in the U.S. alone between 2009 and 2011. As the residential mar-ket suffered through an adjustment in loan-to-value ratios, so too will the commercial market. Combined with a fall in prices (value), commercial prop-erties are likely to face a refi nancing crisis that will require investors to sig-nifi cantly increase their own capital to achieve any level of refi nancing.
Financing structures and bank regu-lations are often observed to be quite different in Canada than in the U.S., a fact that has not been lost on Cana-dians throughout the sub-prime and credit crises. Those regulations have arguably insulated our economy to some degree from the most severe impacts of the recession. Even so, in Canada the forecast for 2009 calls for a contraction in real GDP, a government defi cit of almost three per cent of GDP, cuts in the central bank rate through the fi rst half of 2010, weak exchange rates and reduced external demand for Canadian goods and services.
If the experience of General Growth Properties is at all a harbinger of things to come, we may all need to prepare for an interesting period in the history of our industry!
1‘Commercial Break – Disaster looms in yet another asset class’; April 23rd 2009
BOMA Calgary News 4
A Refreshing Outlook for Transportation
I had the pleasure to attend a symposium on a regional transpor-tation plan that was sponsored by
the Calgary Regional Partnership. The partnership is a collaborative group of rural municipalities surrounding the city, and the city itself. There was a good deal of interesting and thought-provoking information pre-sented, especially from the San Diego experience.
With tongue fi rmly planted in cheek, I don’t know what all the fuss is about concerning transportation issues and Calgary Transit in particu-lar. There aren’t any real problems with Calgary’s roads, highways and byways, buses and trains. It is with-
out exception a perfectly designed and functional network … for a city of 400,000! Sarcasm aside, that’s the point. Calgary is chronically under-resourced with necessary in-frastructure. The books are littered with policies that are so outdated and inappropriate they don’t deserve a mention.
For those insomniacs who have read the hundreds of pages in three volumes of the draft transportation and land use documents also known as Plan It, and the hundreds more in background studies, they can take lit-tle comfort that meaningful solutions are anywhere near short-term imple-mentation. The problem, it would
seem, extends from a deeply-embed-ded corporate philosophy within the City of Calgary itself. For example, all the presenters at the Regional Part-nership Symposium placed a strong emphasis on customer service. The speaker from the City barely men-tioned customer service at all. The Plan It document, that $6.3 million compendium of views of the future, in all its thousands and thousands of words, mentions customer service but once. This tends to reinforce the perceptions that the managers of Cal-gary Transit are running the system for themselves and not for the cus-tomer. Something clearly needs to be fi xed and soon.
The spokesman from San Diego shared with the group at the sympo-sium the fi ndings of $500,000 worth of customer research. There were three principal fi ndings:
• I want to get from “A” to “B”.• I want to get there quickly and don’t make me wait.• I want to feel good about the experience.
Calgary seems to do the opposite if
the griping from its customers is ac-curate. Our city is long overdue for a customer-centric transportation sys-tem. San Diego seems to have got it. Unfortunately it is doubtful that Plan It will do it for us.
EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT’S REPORT
By William Partridge, CAE, Executive Vice-President
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BOMA Calgary News 5
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✔ BOMA certifi ed ✔ Professional surveyors ✔ More than 25 years of measurement experience ✔ Responsive, reliable and competitive service ✔ Professional liability insurance
For all your fl oor measurement needs, call us fi rstPhone: 403-569-8702 E-mail: [email protected] www.dawatt.com
Conservative Territory*By Robert Henderson, CORE Database
*Values reported in this article are for the land value exclusive of structures on them. Names in [] are the legal names.
The rivers draining from the mountains eastward to Hudson Bay greatly infl uenced devel-
opment in the Canadian West. The Assiniboine comes out of south cen-tral Saskatchewan and then turns eastward to the Red River. The South Saskatchewan rises in the Crowsnest area, absorbs the Bow and Red Deer before running north through central Saskatchewan. The North Saskatche-wan starts at the foot of the Columbia Icefi eld, travels across the northern edge of the Prairies, joining the South Saskatchewan before draining into Lake Winnipeg which itself is drained by the Nelson. The area was well served by this network of rivers and should have been home to numerous trading establishments, but this was not the case. These plains were domi-nated by the Siksika (Blackfoot) who were hostile to intrusions on their territory.
Trading relations started with ear-ly Canadien traders coming up the Great Lakes from Montreal, but their business tactics did not impress the Siksika. The Canadien traders would strike a hard bargain for the furs and then, to celebrate the deal, bring out the brandy, getting the Indians intoxi-cated and taking back the goods they had received to pay for the brandy. Indian women would also be taken
as collateral for any outstanding re-mainder until the Indians could come in with more furs. The result was the Siksika would attempt to destroy any Canadien trading post established in their domain. The Siksika did respect the traders from Hudson’s Bay as they traded fairly and did not use alcohol in the negotiations. The insular nature of the Hudson’s Bay Company, how-ever, could not conceive at the time of the immensity of the territory they had been granted, but others could. The Seven Years’ War, ending in 1763, had established British control of North America. The demobilized Brit-ish soldiers, along with Canadiens not wishing to be part of the new regime, set out in scores to establish posts along the North Saskatchewan. This was Cree territory and the Cree were very amenable to trade. Written re-cords of these early traders have not survived and it is highly unlikely that any of these traders penetrated very far into Siksika territory. The area around Calgary, deep in Siksika territory, was far from anyone’s con-sciousness and certainly unknown to anyone’s recollection, remaining in that state for another century.
What was once Siksika land is now the busy city. January saw a small shop on 8th Street at 15th Avenue re-ported to sell for $240/sqft while the
fi rst phase of ATCO’s building, again on 8th Street, at 11th [Smith] Avenue, was reported to sell for $47,000,000.
February saw the city sell its free-hold land title on the Eau Claire Market to the leaseholder for $42.62/sqft with the prospect of a major re-development. The Webster Gallery on 11th [Smith] Avenue near 8th Street sold for $355/sqft while one of the city’s more controversial purchases, the Cecil Hotel just north of city hall, was purchased for $250/sqft. Set against the Eau Claire sale, the city added $2,000,000 to their coffers.
The Gaslight/Gateway Midtown project on 10th [Pacifi c] Avenue at 4th [Ross] Street SW went through the court in December 2008 and was ordered sold with the transfer com-ing in March 2009 to Pointe of View for a reported $526/sqft while the city shuffl ed East Village properties between itself and the Calgary Mu-nicipal Land Corporation. The City’s Land Corporation also purchased the Dusty’s/Coyote’s/Cowboys site on 11th [Smith] Avenue at 4th [Dewd-ney] Street SE for $8,000,000 which was $2,000,000 above the estimated value thus erasing the gains made in the previous month. Lastly, a strata lot from the Arriva project at 12th [van Horne] Avenue was sold for $19,300,000.
BOMA Calgary News 6
BOMA BESt is the next evolution of BOMA Canada’s Go Green program. BESt stands for Building Environmental Standards.
The latest to be certifi ed as BOMA BESt: Sovereign Centre, Tonko Realty Advisors, Level 1
505 Third Street SW, Morguard Investments, Level 2Canterra Tower, Oxford Properties Group, Level 3
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Who’s Who in the Zoo!
Welcome these new BOMA members:
• Ron Fiell, NewWest Enterprise Property Group
• Keith Beggs, NewWest Enterprise Property Group
• Sandy Stephenson, OMNI Facility Services Inc.
• Katie Webber, Remington Development Corporation
• JoAnne Teed, Universal Flooring Systems Ltd.
• Mark Macgillivray, CCR Energy Services
• Bob Malone, McCrums Offi ce Furnishings
• Ilya Pengu, Royal Roofi ng Ltd.
• Audrey Hawthorne, Penn West Energy
• Doug Morton, The University of Calgary
• Larry Fradette, SNC Lavalin Profac
• Neil Noronha, OMNI Facility Services Inc.
• Jean Lekopoy, Maple Leaf Property Management
• Dan Marston, The Diebold Company of Canada
• Helen Boden, Ronmor Holdings Inc.
• Sue-Ann Wearmouth, BCMP Architects Inc.
• Paul O’Connor, Rona
• Michael Kehoe, Fairfi eld Commercial Real Estate Inc.
• Mike Podovinnikoff, Oxford Properties Group
• Roy Doyle Baker, Spartan Controls
Guy Priddle, President presents Frank Giugovaz of Morguard Investments Ltd. with the BOMA BESt Level 2 Certifi cate for 505 Third St SW.
Guy Priddle, President presents Stacey Petropoulos, Deanna Gabrielson, Jack Schmaltz, and Andy Stegmann of Tonko Realty Advisors with their BOMA BESt Level 1 Certifi cate for Sovereign Centre.
Todd Hirsch of ATB Financial gives the economic perspective at the March BOMA Luncheon.
Guy Priddle, President presents Mike Podovinnikoff, Oxford Properties Group, with a BOMA BESt Level 3 Certifi cate for Canterra Tower.
BOMA Calgary News 7
Pinnacle Award - Above & Beyond: SNC Lavalin Nexacor Pinnacle Award - Customer Service: Bentall LP Pinnacle Award - Innovation: Brookfi eld Properties
TOBY – Renovated Building: Calgary Place, Oxford Properties Group
Earth Award: Gulf Canada Square, GWL Realty Advisors
TOBY – 100,000-249,000 sq ft: Bank of Nova Scotia Western Service Centre, Bentall LP
Certifi cate of Environmental Excellence: BP Centre, Bentall LP
Thank you to the Sponsors of the 2009 Celebrating Excellence Awards
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BOMA Calgary celebrated building and management excellence with their Celebrating Excellence Awards on May 6 at the Westin Hotel. This awards program sets the standards in the industry and recognizes excellence in property and facility management. Certifi cation ac-knowledges performance quality and the people behind it. BOMA Calgary is pleased to announce the winners of the Pinnacle, EARTH and TOBY Awards! Thank you to our judging teams! Congratulations to the 2009 Winners!
Celebrating Excellence 2009
Tri Executive Group200, 708 - 11th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB403-237-8285 | www.triexec.com
Limited time offer: If you’ve recently been laid off and are thinking about starting your own business, Tri Executive Group is offering a free 1 week trial. Space is limited. Contact Tannas today for a no-pressure tour of YOUR new offi ce. 403-237-8253 [email protected]
But there is always a silver lining… If your organization has been looking at the books—you have realized how costly running your own offi ce truly is. Administrative salaries, leasing and running offi ce equipment; phone lines, utilities, the list goes on.
The times have also seen many lose their jobs only to realize positions in their fi elds are no longer abundant in this market. This is the time of the entrepreneur. Every time the economy goes through similar changes, new businesses are born.
Tri Executive Group (TEG) is a high-tech, upscale business centre located on 11th avenue south west. It offers everything your own offi ce would and more – without the high overhead.
• 24/7 access to your securely locked offi ce• Free long distance in Canada and the US• Furnished offi ce• Free faxing from TEG’s fax line• Board room space with Smart Board• Copying, scanning and printing• High-speed and wireless internet• Ordering offi ce supplies at a discounted rate• Telephone, guest and courier reception• Telephone handset• Phone line with voice mail• Call forwarding• Free bike racks for the green folks• Secured underground parking available• Showers—yes showers!• A social and networking outlet for the soloprenuers• A kitchen where someone will get rid of the
“fuzzy food”• One monthly bill for everything—what a time saver!
With every new business, support is required. Believe me, without assistance, starting a business is tough!Tri Executive Group offers some of the simplest things that make all the difference for small business owners. Just having someone to receive an important package while you are with clients saves amazing amounts of stress.
If you don’t require a full-time offi ce, TEG offers part-time packages that provide some time in the offi ce when needed, or simply a proper business address for deliveries, mail and the ever important appearance of a downtown address.
Imagine being able to start your own business without any of the traditional offi ce set-up headache. Walk in with your computer and personal fi les and start your business calls that day. Priceless.
Business Centre Offers Options for New Entrepreneursby Trina Lo
Vast shifts in the worldwide economy are changing how businesses think and operate. Many have taken a closer look at their operations only to realize they were simply spending more than necessary during the boom. Offi ce downsizing and lay-offs have been top-of-mind. It’s time for some fi nancial adjustments.
Happy Client!My Stuff
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BOMA Calgary News 9
Most Canadians call it the country’s most valuable resource. Others label it ‘Blue Gold.’ But call it what you like, there’s no denying our water sup-
ply is diminishing at an alarming rate. What is one of the biggest culprits? Outdoor irrigation!
Only one per cent of the global water supply is fresh wa-
ter available for human consumption. A staggering 85 per cent of this one per cent is used for irrigation. It is estimat-ed 60 per cent of the water used in landscape irrigation is wasted due to over-watering and ineffi cient watering.
But comparatively recent innovations in the irrigation industry make it easier for business owners and managers
to save water, money and human la-bour, something large water users such as golf courses and municipalities have been doing for years.
The Alberta Chapter of the Irrigation Association offers the following tips:
• Consider ‘smart’ technology: Cli-mate or soil-moisture sensor-based controllers evaluate weather and/or soil moisture conditions and then cal-culate and automatically adjust the irrigation schedule to meet the specifi c needs of your landscape. Most current irrigation is run by pre-set timers. (E.g. they water three times a week even if it has rained solid for several days.)
• Consider low-volume drip irrigation for plant beds: Install micro-irrigation for gardens, trees and shrubs to irrigate slowly and minimize evaporation, run-off and over-spray.
• Adjust sprinkler heads: Correct ob-structions that prevent sprinklers from distributing water evenly.
• Inspect your system monthly: Check for leaks, broken or clogged heads, and other problems.
• Adapt your watering schedule to the weather and the season: Adjust the watering schedule regularly to conform to current weather conditions.
• Water at the optimum time: Water when the sun is low or down, winds are calm and temperatures are cool (i.e. between the evening and early morn-ing) to reduce evaporation.
• Water only when needed: Water-ing too much and too frequently results in shallow roots, weed growth, disease and fungus.
Smart controllers reduce outdoor water use by monitoring and using in-formation about site conditions (such as soil moisture, rain, wind, slope, plant
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Money Down the DrainBy Bob Poole, ExactET Systems Inc.
BOMA Calgary News 10
ful ly
integrated
tenant solut ions
type, etc.) and applying the right amount of water to main-tain healthy growing conditions.
The City of Calgary is on the cutting edge of irrigation technology and uses the science of climate-based irrigation to reduce the time and costs associated with watering parks. Denis Gordeau, the city’s water management co-ordinator, says Calgary’s automated irrigation system uses an average of 44 per cent less water than traditional controllers.
Other benefi ts of ‘smart’ technology include:• improved turf quality• reduced pesticide use• reduced staff costs• stronger and deeper roots• reduced carbon footprint• public recognition for going ‘green’• supports BOMA BESt and LEED certifi cation • reduced fertilizer costs
Healthier landscapes are better landscapes with greener grass, fuller trees and brighter blooms. The best way to achieve healthier landscapes is to deliver the right amount of water when and where it is needed. Follow that rule and you will put money in your company’s bank account instead of pouring it down the drain.
Bob Poole is Vice President of ExactET Systems Inc.
Pandemic Preparedness
The problem with a crisis is that it lasts as long as our memory. Once the threat subsides, we return to a false state of security. As a result, when the next crisis arises many of us are not ready. The SARS outbreak in 2003 re-iterated the importance of the Boy Scouts’ motto, “Be Prepared.” Sadly not many of us are. The BOMA organiza-tions in Canada did take the whole matter of pandemics seriously and recognized that a massive outbreak was in-evitable. It was treated not as a matter of “if” but rather a question of “when.”
BOMA prepared the Pandemic Planning Guide for Com-mercial Buildings and made it available from a focused pandemic website (http://www.bomacanada-pandemic.ca/). Information is available in both offi cial languages. The Planning Guide is down-loadable. With the outbreak of the H1N1 fl u in Mexico, the work the Commercial Real Estate Industry undertook some time ago has renewed im-portance for the property management sector and more importantly for tenants in buildings. If you are a tenant in a BOMA member-managed building, chances are your landlord has already developed their own pandemic plan. But your company should also have its own plan and the BOMA Guide can assist with many of the aspects you need to consider. In any event, ask your landlord about their pandemic preparedness. You need to be prepared.
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BOMA Calgary News 12
I’ve just returned from a vacation and although I intended to relax, read and take advantage of the
warm weather on the gorgeous island of Maui, it’s diffi cult to go anywhere and not scrutinize it as a place to live, work and get around.
Now Maui is very different – not as many snowplows – but people there still have to live and earn a living. The fi rst thing that hit me walking down to the beach is that there wasn’t a parking meter to be found.
Maui administration realizes that their economy is reliant upon people being able to get to the beach, shops and attractions. There are several sur-face parking lots on South Kihei Road, all kinds of street parking, and any open space soon gets parked on.
We drove up to Paia and couldn’t
fi nd an empty parking spot so we drove on. A couple of days later we made the journey again, parked and had a great lunch after shopping. Finding parking meant local businesses benefi ted – a lesson for downtown merchants here.
Arriving back home, the fi rst order of business was to catch up with all of the news I’d been able to avoid. What an exciting city we live in; it took me hours to read and digest the happen-ings of those few days.
I was in Paris a few years back and had the pleasure of sitting down with a vice-mayor with responsibilities that included culture. He explained to me how he had managed to close the ma-jor road along the Right Bank for the summer and lay a sandy beach on the tarmac to encourage people to relax and have fun.
I told him there is no way he would get away with such an idea in Calgary. And what do you know – I leave the city for a while and come back to a plan to close lanes along Memorial Drive to encourage people to relax and have fun!
I know how to relax and enjoy the opportunity to just wander along with-out fear of getting hit by a car. But what’s wrong with Prince’s Island, the Calgary Zoo, Heri-tage Park and the Bow River Pathway we are so proud of?
There seems to be a growing num-ber of people who have such a hate for cars that they will come up with
any fool idea to restrict the use of pri-vate transportation.
The fact is, this city’s huge footprint makes driving inevitable for most of us – at least until that wonderful day when we have access to public transit within minutes and to all areas of the city. Not in my life time I’m afraid.
Business has to be done, people have to get to work, and there are so few ways of getting across the city. Memo-rial Drive is for sure one of the major routes.
Then I read about transportation pric-ing that might include road tolls, transit fares and parking rates to manage traf-fi c fl ows and congestion; the infamous sink hole that closed 4th Street SW; and the kafuffl e over the Drop-In Centre’s purchase of the Sundial tower.
Never a dull moment, but the story that took a lot of my thinking time was the idea of developers providing parking on construction sites where de-velopments have stalled. Good idea.
I don’t agree with the comment that high revenues from parking would be reason to stop further construction. I do know that it is diffi cult to fi nd park-ing in the core and I worry about the effect not only on downtown retailers but building owners too.
Bell has moved out to Westwinds where there is a convenient LRT sta-tion and lots of parking for employees. For the same reason AEC Engineer-ing moved out to Crowfoot, and the amount of free parking at Quarry Park has already attracted AMEC, Jacobs and Catalyst Group.
One day the Calgary Parking Author-ity may just spend some of the money it has collected over the years to build new parking structures. Until then al-lowing more surface parking a la Maui is something BOMA, Calgary Downtown Association members, and even Calgary Economic Development should be push-ing hard for.
But no matter where you travel, Cal-gary really is the very best place to live; let’s encourage city hall to try and not mess it up.
More Surface Parking a la MauiBy David Parker
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