St. Albert Sports City Gets Go Ahead
St. Albert, Alberta - July 15th 2011 – The City of St. Albert took a bold step in community development by green-lighting a new multi-purpose sports training and educational facility for elite amateur athletes. The project will be developed on a 30 acre site in the City of St. Albert, about 25 minutes outside Edmonton. The somewhat controversial development was thought by a small group of City councilors to be offside with the City’s objective to aggressively expand its industrial tax base. In the end however, the economic up-side and increased exposure it would bring to the City – and the entire Capital Region for that matter – helped carry the day for SAS Sports and Entertainment Group, the lead proponents of the Sports City project.
The Sports City development program will feature various sports and academic facilities, as well as on-site dorms for the students enrolled in the elite athlete programs. It is envisioned that Sports City will attract upwards of 1,500 young athletes to attend the academy on a full time basis. The concept also includes a new 3,000 seat stadium for the Edmonton Prospects, a AAA-baseball club, a farmer’s market, a movie theatre, professional offices and sports-themed retail uses, which are expected to draw thousands of annual visitors.
In its submission package to the City, SAS Sports commissioned Toronto-based urbanMetrics to look at the economic impacts of Sports City. The study focused on the economic spin-off effects related to Sports City – measured based on taxes collected and expenditures made within the City of St. Albert by students, Sports City staff, parents, athletes and spectators, on things such as food, accommodations, merchandise and personal services. Overall, the annual operations of SAS Sports’ $250 million project would stimulate $47.3 million in direct expenditures, and would help support 224 new jobs, when all direct, indirect, and induced impacts are considered.
Yorkdale Mall Expansion Moves Forward
Toronto, Ontario - January 25, 2011 - Oxford Properties formally announced the expansion of one of its flagship Canadian properties, Yorkdale Mall, Toronto. At 1.4 million square feet Yorkdale is already one of the largest super-regional shopping centres in the Greater Toronto Area. The expansion project, which was supported by an independent market study prepared by Toronto-based urbanMetrics inc., represents an estimated 10% increase to the existing shopping centre’s retail footprint. The $220-million project will include the development of more than 40 new stores, 800 new structured parking spaces as well as a new food-court. The initial market response to this project has been very strong, with a number of major US and international retailers formally expressing their desire to be part of the expansion program. The expansion is slated to open in 2012.
Ottawa’s Development and Education Charges Under Review
Ottawa, Ontario – September 30, 2010 - urbanMetrics worked with Mattamy Homes and other developers to conduct an in depth review of Ottawa’s 2009 Development Charges By-law. Our work assisted in supporting a settlement with the City. In a related matter, urbanMetrics was also engaged to review the Education Development Charge By-laws passed by the four Ottawa area school boards. In the subsequent Ontario Municipal Board Hearing, the primary issue involved whether the School Boards were obliged to adhere to the City’s population projections. The decision is pending.
Investing In Toronto’s Waterfront Means Jobs and Economic Stimulus
Toronto, Ontario – April 30th, 2010 - Working with Waterfront Toronto, urbanMetrics analyzed the investment of $600 million to date on the Toronto’s waterfront. This investment generated some 8,400 years of employment, primarily in the construction and knowledge based sectors – in other words high value jobs and innovation. This investment resulted in $1.6 billion in total economic output to the Canadian Economy and government revenues of over $300 million. As part of an ongoing assignment urbanMetrics is evaluating the impact of a further $1.6 billion investment in the Waterfront and how it will affect the overall economy of the City and local neighbourhoods. Within the context of this study, we are also examining the Waterfront as a tourist generator, the economic impacts of district energy and smart communities and the influence of waterfront development on older adjacent neighbourhoods.
Square One Granted Exemption for Retail Business Holiday Act.
Mississauga, Ontario, Apr 14, 2010. Starting Victoria Day, Square One Shopping Centre will remain open on most statutory holidays. Nearly two years after it submitted an application to the Region of Peel, the mall received approval to open for business on six extra days. urbanMetrics provided the market justification for Square One which received near unanimous support from Peel Council. Effective immediately, Square One’s merchants can open New Year’s Day, Family Day, Victoria Day, Thanksgiving, Canada Day, Civic Holiday and Labour Day.
Barrie’s proposed Park Place Power Town gets approval from the OMB
Barrie, Ontario - On October 31, 2006 the Ontario Municipal Board delivered their decision with respect to Official Plan and Amendment applications submitted by North American Acquisition Inc. (“North American”) to permit the development of a 190 acre site in the City of Barrie for general commercial and business park uses known as, “Park Place”. urbanMetrics was retained by the City of Barrie in 2005 to prepare a detailed retail market study to determine the market opportunity for this development. The results of our study indicated that it could be supported from a market perspective. However, the City of Barrie envisioned only Business Park on these lands and in March 2006 the City Council enacted Official Plan and Zoning By-Law amendments to implement its Business Park vision. The City, in its opposition to the Park Place applications provided the OMB with a variety of reasons for supporting their “all-Business Park” vision, which included Barrie is a blue collar city, its economy is not balanced, and the Downtown’s ability to revitalize would be negatively impacted, among others.
Doug Annand of urbanMetrics was called as a witness at the hearing to deal with issues of market demand and impact on the Downtown. After reviewing the evidence presented, the OMB found that the appeals by North American should be allowed. The OMB determined that the North American proposal for a mixed use development with a “power town” component has regard for the relevant policy documents, including the 1997 PPS, the 2005 PPS and the City of Barrie Official Plan.
Long-Range Office Market Forecasts, Calgary - Calgary Economic Development
Calgary, AB – On June 27th, 2006 Calgary Economic Development released the findings of an urbanMetrics study that provides both short and long range market demand forecasts for the City’s burgeoning office sector. With vacancy rates sitting at less than 3%, Calgary’s white hot commercial real estate market is now beginning to place significant growth constraints on job creation and business expansion as a result of physical space limitations in the marketplace. The study looked at the size of the commercial office market, changing space utilization patterns and the impact that a changing occupational structure would have on the city urban structure both in the short term (to 2010) and over the longer term (to 2025). The study determined that Calgary should anticipate a market need for some 15 to 20 million square feet of additional office space above and beyond its current inventory level of 45 million square feet.
Economic Impacts of the Province’s new Ontario Smoke Free Act –Windsor
Windsor, Ontario - On May 8th, 2006 urbanMetrics delivered the findings of a comprehensive study to Windsor City Council addressing the direct and indirect economic impacts of the Province’s new Ontario Smoke Free Act. The new legislation which went into effect May 31, 2006 places a 100% smoking ban on all public spaces, including casinos, horse tracks and bingo halls. Over the past two decades, Windsor has aggressively grown its tourism and hospitality market around US-based visitation to Casino Windsor, Windsor Raceway & Slots and a number of charity bingo attractions. The urbanMetrics study, commissioned by the City, determined that Windsor would in fact be Ontario’s hardest hit city. In total, it was determined that up to 2,700 jobs are anticipated to be affected, with an accompanying loss of some $225 million dollars annually from the City’s economy. The City of Windsor will be using findings of the urbanMetrics study to advance discussions with the Province around appropriate measures to mitigate the impact of the legislation.
