Real Estate - May 2017 News from St. Albert Economic Development

May 2017

This Month's Issue:
Real Estate

It Takes a Community to Build an Urban Village

by Harold Pacheco ( [email protected] )

A strong community such as St. Albert, will be home to three new urban villages in the next few years.

Landrex's Urban District

Cape Construction's "Bellevue Village"

Amacon "Grandin Parc"

For those not familiar with the term, an urban village is a type of development that contains mixed use zoning (residential, commercial,), medium-density housing, and emphasizes public amenities such as transit and green spaces. It is synonymous with the New Urbanism movement

The purported benefits of urban villages include:

an increase in walking/cycling (greater health)
less reliance on automobiles (reduction of pollution)
greater interaction between residents (reduction of crime)
a stronger sense of community identity, belonging, and responsibility

The concept became popular in the 90s in Europe, and has resonated with today's homeowners and working professionals.

It is a direct response to urban sprawl, where single-purpose, low density homes are developed on the edges of a community and create dependency on automobiles. While many people desire single family homes and lower land costs that usually come with living in the suburbs, this spread out growth can create issues. For one, servicing the new areas costs more so taxes usually go up. Also, the longer distances between work and home create a reliance on vehicle usage that leads to increased traffic and higher carbon footprints.

Whilst originating in stated concept in Europe, today you can find urban villages in many modern cities throughout North America.

Blatchford Development - Edmonton, AB

Parkside Village - Mississauga, ON (also by Amacon)

James Bay - Victoria, BC

River Place - Portland, OR

According to a 2017 real estate trends report by PWC, housing trends are changing to meet the needs of millennials and empty-nesting/downsizing baby boomers, and as a result, mixed-use developments are thriving. Other factors in their popularity are reduced affordability of homes, and increased immigration on the horizon creating demand for smaller units and community spaces.

In This Issue

It Takes a Community to Build an Urban Village...

St. Albert Real Estate Market in Context

2017 Commercial Cost Share / Beautification Program

2017 Capital Region Golf Tournament

St. Albert Innovation Summit

Business Spotlight On... Love Pizza

New Businesses in St. Albert

Join the Conversation!

Upcoming Events

BREI 2017 Conference

June 19 - 23

St. Albert Innovation Summit

June 28

St. Albert's Residential Real Estate Market In Context

by Rhys Chouinard ( [email protected] )

As Alberta slowly limps out of a two-year recession, one of the key market segments to watch is residential housing. The Edmonton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) started the year with 2,714 housing starts in quarter one. If this pace was maintained for the rest of the year, Edmonton CMA would post around 11,000 housing starts total in 2017. This value is close to the ten-year average for the Edmonton area (11,560), but well below the record-pace set during the last five years (an annual average of 13,700 housing starts). Further south in the province, the Calgary CMA started the year with 2,079 housing starts in the first quarter. This would annualize to about 8,316, well below Edmonton CMA's total, suggesting that Calgary's housing market is lagging behind the Capital City's coming out of the recession. The pull back in new housing stock is directly tied to decreased interprovincial migration caused by a weakened job market. Alberta has witnessed five straight quarters of net interprovincial migration outflow, meaning more residents left Alberta for other provinces than entered from other provinces. Total population growth in Alberta has been kept in the positives by international in-migration and natural births, which is keeping demand for housing afloat.

In St. Albert, the housing starts in quarter one of 2017 totalled 203. This is a very strong start to the year, and the total was buoyed mainly by 164 apartment units. The bulk of these dwelling starts are from the Bellevue Village development in Riel, located just south of the Enjoy Centre. The community of St. Albert continues to see a shift away from single family dwellings, towards higher density housing types such as condos and apartments. St. Albert had a particularly strong year for new housing starts in 2016, posting a record year while Calgary and Edmonton saw notable decreases in new housing starts. It's expected that St. Albert should have another year of strong housing activity as new residential and mixed developments put shovels in the ground.

Edmonton CMA and Calgary CMA new housing start (left axis) and St. Albert new housing starts (right axis), annual totals over the last ten years.

Bellevue Village site construction, October 2016.

Bellevue Village site construction, March 2017.

It looks as though outside of St. Albert, the province as a whole is in for a mild year of housing starts. On a positive note, the reduction in housing supply has kept prices steady during the latest recession. While Calgary's new house price index has dropped off very slightly over the last two years, Edmonton CMA's new house price index has been essentially flat since 2009. This steady price environment should encourage builders as the recovery takes hold in 2017 and in-migration to the province begins to pick back up again.

Source: Statistics Canada Table 327-0046.

Commercial Cost Share / Beautification Program 2017

Studies have shown that beautification alone can increase sales between 15% and 35%.

Merchants should think of the sidewalks fronting their shops as extensions of their window displays, or as entry halls to their stores. Beautiful settings attract people. Adding flowers, trees and outdoor furnishings to a shopping district makes it more inviting, and encourages shoppers to stay longer.

There are 4 ways to beautify your business:

Beautification (flowers/plants)
Perpendicular Signage
Street Furniture
Bike Racks

For more information, please visit the Commercial Cost Share / Beautification website.

2017 Capital Region Municipal Golf Tournament -

Registration and/or Sponsorship Opportunities Available Now

The City of St. Albert is pleased to be hosting the 2017 Capital Region Municipal Golf Tournament on August 24, 2017. The theme for this event will be "Celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary", and proceeds will be in support of Valour Place.

Valour Place is a temporary home away from home for all Canadian Forces members, RCMP, Families of the Fallen, Veterans and First Responders along with their families who require medical treatment in Edmonton, and live outside the city/area.

This tournament offers a unique opportunity to network with elected officials and senior administrators of 24 municipalities in the Capital Region.

If you or your business would like to get involved with this event (registration, donation/sponsorship, media), please contact Harold Pacheco (via e-mail, Ph: 780-459-1630).

Attention Business Retention & Expansion Professionals! BREI 2017 Conference, June 19 - 23

BREI is pleased to announce its 2017 Annual Conference to be held in Edmonton, Alberta . Slated to be hosted by the Westin , this conference will feature top-notch business retention and expansion speakers with a mix of tracks to include both educators and practitioners of BRE.

Speakers include:

Stephen Mandel, former Mayor of Edmonton
Todd Hirsch, ATB Financial
Roger Brooks, Roger Brooks International
Brad Ferguson, EEDC
Rhys Chouinard, City of St. Albert

View the information on the official website and register today for the world's largest BRE conference !

Follow the conversation on Twitter

@BREI_org

#BREyeg

St. Albert Innovation Summit - June 28

Join together with business and local leaders to share creative ideas and debate the opportunities and challenges that new technologies and processes may bring to communities!

Cost: $20 (all day including lunch)
$10 (half day, no lunch)
$0 (student or media)

Register today at stalbert.ca/summit

Business Spotlight on... LOVEPIZZA
by Monty Killoh ([email protected])

What's the best kind of place to get pizza? One that offers fast service and pizza on the go, or one that offers a sit-down dining experience? LOVEPIZZA combines the best of both, as co-owner Gavin Fedorak explains: "most pizza places are take-out or delivery - they don't have the in-store service. We still do take-out and delivery, but we also provide the environment for people who want to get out of their houses and have that place to get together and meet and make memories."

This idea of making memories at the local pizza place is the foundation of the business; "we want to create memorable experiences for people around the pizza, around the place, so that's the vision - to be that neighbourhood pizza spot that creates memories, and we feel that we can do that by having an all-encompassing experience" explains Gavin. Indeed, LOVEPIZZA's new St. Albert location - its second location since Gavin and his wife opened their first location in downtown Edmonton in January 2016 - stands out with its modern design, welcoming atmosphere, and polished environment; "people are surprised that we aren't a franchise," notes Gavin; "it looks like a franchise because of the level of polish, but that's more because of a background working in the food business, so we knew what we were doing."

A brief look at LOVEPIZZA's menu is enough to convince that the business is a good fit in St. Albert. All kinds of pizza - from signature pizzas to custom creations - are 6' wide by 18' long, go for $12.95 each, and are made with an abundance of local ingredients from Sturgeon County, Round Hill and Calgary; combined with craft sodas and beers brewed locally in Alberta, such a meal in an inviting atmosphere is a great fit for St. Albert; "people want a dining experience, but don't want to pay $30 per person to get it; you can come in, get a full pizza and a beer for less than $20.00," says Gavin.

LOVEPIZZA is open at the Erin Ridge North Shopping Centre, which is a growing commercial district with exciting development plans for the future: "This area seems to be where the City is going," notes Gavin; "everything we've read, including the City's economic development reports seem to indicate that everything is pushing this way. Costco is a huge anchor, Marshall's and HomeSense, the new movie theatre, all the new houses... this is going to be a very busy centre soon."

LOVEPIZZA

335 - 935 St Albert Trail

St Albert, AB T8N 4K6