subject: Has Downtown Edmonton Turned the Corner from "Deadmonton" to Bustling Hub? [print this page] Has Downtown Edmonton Turned the Corner from "Deadmonton" to Bustling Hub?
15 years ago, downtown Edmonton was the core of 'Deadmonton'. On evenings and weekends the tumbleweeds would blow through the empty streets without a witness to see them. There were little or no new residential construction going on and people had little options for new developments, except for in outlying areas.
In the mid 90's city council started a project to infuse life into downtown by offering tax breaks to builders to start retrofitting older buildings and for new developments. Although not as successful as hoped, it was the start of a long, slow process of injecting life into the core.
Fast forward 15 years to today. I went into the bustling strip mall on the corner of 109th Street and Jasper Ave. The local coffee shop was packed as I worked, as was the parking area in the centre and the streets around the centre. New Mayfair rental developments on 108th street and Jasper greeted me as I headed east, along with the Icon twin buildings and the new Sobeys on 104th Street. I was struck by theactivity of the streets as I continued to drive. Although it was emptier east of 97th street, the construction startup of the Quarters area was a pleasant sight.
It may just be a bit optimistic, but the question popped into my head:
Have we turned the corner for our downtown? Has Edmonton finally created a downtown that is liveable?
The projects are adding up. The Omega on 105 street, the Icon towers on 104th, the monstrous new Pearl on Jasper and 118th (approximately) the Illuminada, The Legacy buildings, Quest tower, the new Epcor Towers.....is just a small sample of the list of properties that have been built since 2000. More are on their way. Today an announcement to turn 108th Street from 104 ave to the Legislature ground into a bustling walkway and interactive area just reinforces the fact that the downtown core is being re-energized.
With the new proposed arena district and Aurora complex anchoring the north end of downtown next to Epcor, it looks as though the downtown Edmonton has hoped and dreamed about is closer than we think!
