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Saskatoon Ascendant Riverfront Redevelopment in Step with Economic Upturn
May, 2007
By Barbara Carss
River Landing is a fitting sign of the times in Saskatoon. Transformation of the former no-go area on the South Saskatchewan River waterfront parallels a resurgent economy that is boosting demand for office space and spurring new retail and residential development in the city.
Redevelopment of the 30-acre tract reconnects the downtown core and the central neighbourhood of Riversdale to the riverfront and surrounding Meewasin Valley. Approximately $42 million of initial project funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments is expected to draw further private investment of at least twice that amount.
Recently released 2006 Census results show Saskatoon is one of the few growth centres in Saskatchewan, with a 3.5% population increase in the five years between 2001 and 2006. A population count of 234,000 represents about 40,000 more residents than in Regina, the capital and next largest city in the province. However, local observers maintain that many more settlers have arrived or returned in the year since the census tally was taken.
"We seem to have gone through the cycle from a place that people wanted to leave to a place where people want to be," says Tom McClocklin, President of Colliers McClocklin Real Estate Corp. in Saskatoon.
Sustained market demand in the resources sector has opened up opportunities in Saskatchewan's potash, uranium and burgeoning diamond mining industries, as well as in oil and gas exploration. Meanwhile, the escalating cost of living in neighbouring Alberta positions Saskatchewan as an affordable alternative.
"We've just had a tremendous influx of ex pats who are coming back, a lot of them bringing investment dollars," reports Terry Scaddan, Executive Director of the Saskatoon Downtown Business Improvement District, which encompasses about 800 businesses in a 44-block area in the city's core. "The look of downtown is changing and there is new interest in downtown living. Although downtown has never really gone bad, there is a real rejuvenation going on."
FORGING NEW CONNECTIONS
Until recently, the River Landing site was a rare obstruction to the waterfront in a city noted for its seven bridges and extensive river valley park system. Commuters into the downtown got a view from the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge that looked to abandoned industrial land and a vacant school campus.
"It's really like the front yard of the city," says Chris Dekker, Manager of Special Projects with the City of Saskatoon. "Part of it was a brownfield in every sense of the word. It was for the most part fenced off and inaccessible. The other side wasn't contaminated, but the structures on the site posed a barrier to the waterfront."
The redevelopment project is now occurring in two simultaneous phases on either side of the bridge and Idylwyld Freeway that intersect the area along its north/south axis. To the west is the brownfield that the City acquired in the early 1990s when SaskPower decommissioned and demolished the electricity generating plant that stood on the site. A former technical school site, which the City acquired more recently in November 2001, lies to the east, immediately south of the downtown business district.
"We have a series of planning principles, which anything we do on these sites is vetted against," Dekker explains. The South Downtown Concept Plan, which Saskatoon Council approved in 2004, is the guiding document to create a mixture of commercial, residential and recreational uses that include public space, cultural/entertainment venues, employment opportunities and measures to protect and celebrate environmentally significant features of the river valley.
Design guidelines call for streetscapes and interspersed green space that will provide continuity between the downtown and the waterfront, and between the east and west sectors of the River Landing project lands. Along the riverfront, a public park ties the east and west sectors together and links into a network of riverfront trails and green space throughout the city. "It's the very first development and arguably the jewel and the anchor of both phases," Dekker says.
On the northern edge, the 19th Street boundary of the downtown has become more pedestrian friendly with the demolition of an obsolete railway bridge that crossed over and cast shadows onto the road below. Partial dismantling of an on-ramp to the Senator Sid Buckwold Bridge will allow the current below-grade connection between the east and west sides of the ramp to be refashioned into a surface route.
"There has always been a disconnect between Riversdale and the downtown because there was a railroad yard that separated them and there were only two places where you could cross," Scaddan says. "The new configuration creates a better transition."
PROJECT PROGRESS
In 2006, environmental contractors cleaned up the contaminated land on the former power plant site to comply with standards for commercial and residential development. Road construction and installation of sewer/water and other utilities connections will soon be underway. Once those services are in place, the City will issue a request for proposals (RFPs) for potential projects, with an emphasis on mid-density housing that ranges from four storeys at the waterfront to 14 storeys along more northerly streets.
Elsewhere on the site, a depot associated with the old power plant has been converted to serve as a farmers' market, while another abandoned building is earmarked for a future business incubator complex. A hydro substation that cannot be practically or economically relocated will instead be disguised with landscaping and other screening solutions, and outfitted with sound attenuation technology.
The downtown street grid has been reconfigured and extended into the east side of River Landing. A new public square sits amid an envisioned cultural/entertainment district, and the first private endeavour - a 450-seat home for the Persephone Theatre Company - is under construction.
Plans for a hotel/spa complex were somewhat sidetracked when the original development proponent - chosen through an RFP process - pulled out of the deal earlier this year. The City has since issued a new request for expressions of interest and plans to release the short list for the RFP this summer. The winning bid is expected to be identified by late fall.
Scaddan suggests the false start may actually work out to the City's advantage since there has been more interest from developers this time than when the original call went out in 2005. "For every door that closes another one opens," he says. "In the meantime, the economy and interest in the downtown has just taken off."
Other still-to-be-realized elements of the plan include a major entertainment/cultural attraction, an associated complex that would house a café and public space, and various public art installations. The public square, Century Plaza, which forms the ceremonial heart of River Landing, already boasts a feature landmark chosen through a national design competition and unveiled in December 2006 to mark Saskatoon's centennial year.
IN SYNC FOR REJUVENATION
Market analysts see a sort of symbiotic momentum from the River Landing redevelopment, recent development activity in the core, and overarching economic factors. Notably, there was a 3% drop in downtown office vacancies over the course of 2006, falling to 7.1% by the end of December.
"We finally have an office vacancy rate down close to the national average after years of being well above it," McClocklin notes. "Office market demand has really picked up in the last 18 months and particularly in the last six months."
Conversions of prominent buildings such as the former Hudson's Bay store and the historic Rumely warehouse are augmenting a growing stock of downtown residential condominiums, while Saskatoon's only regional shopping mall also continues to flourish in its downtown location. Colliers McClocklin projects up to 1.5 million square feet of new retail space will be added throughout the city in the next couple of years to keep pace with growth and pent up demand.
"We haven't really seen the effect of many suburban retail developments yet," McClocklin observes. "Saskatoon was pretty slow to get into big box development sites. Currently, we only have one, and one more in development."
Similarly, the City's planning rules dictate that multiplex movie theatre complexes can only be built in the downtown core - an edict that has played a role in recent revitalization.
Scaddan credits the Saskatoon Council elected in 2003 for easing zoning restrictions on a vacant site in the downtown core, known as Block 146. After Council opted to transfer a set of ambitious development conditions from the downtown site to the larger tract of land at River Landing, Galaxy Cinemas built a 12-screen theatre complex, which opened in the summer of 2006, on the once problematic lot. Plans have also been announced for a new hotel on the site of the company's former downtown movie house.
"Block 146 sat fallow for some 20 years. The new theatre complex has been extremely successful. Taking the DCD (Direct Control District) zoning off that block is one of the particularly important things they did," Scaddan maintains.
"The River Landing zoning will help downtown, as well, because it is forcing it to become a people place," McClocklin says. "Our riverfront is incredible in Saskatoon, but this one piece will be even more inviting, and it wasn't a very inviting place before because it wasn't well designed to allow people access."
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