An extensive renovation project aims to turn a former bowling alley and failed nightclub into a visual arts complex in Calgary’s central core.
Art Central is to be developed by Encorp Inc. in a two-storey building on the northwest corner of Centre Street and 7th Avenue S.
The building started its life back in the late 1920s as a bowling alley, and you can still make out pin-setting marks on the floor.
More recently, under different ownership, it was the site of the Calgary Arts and Media Club, a project backed by Canadian actor-singer Tom Jackson. The second-floor club opened to great fanfare in 1996, boasting a cabaret-style theatre, restaurant and bar, but soon closed its doors and saw its assets temporarily seized by the City of Calgary for 1997 business taxes.
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| EnCorp Inc. is developing a visual arts centre at 7th Avenue and Centre Street in Calgary. |
The building is now being readied for its newest debut. As a visual arts centre, all three levels will be involved, tied together visually and physically by a 30 x 40-ft. skylight over an atrium containing the staircase.
The basement and second floor will have artists’ studios, with related retail businesses on the ground floor.
The businesses will include galleries and a cafe in the corner space on the upper level.
Studios will have glass fronts so artists can display their work and passers-by can see artists at work.
Renovation will be undertaken through the winter of 2004, and there should be artists working at Art Central in about a year, says Sandra Neill of Encorp, which restores, renovates and reuses historical buildings Art Central is within the Olympic Plaza Cultural District.
The city’s plans for renovating 7th Avenue will also help contribute, she says.
“When we bought our first building, the Alberta Hotel, in 1997, the street wasn’t quite what it is today,” says Neill. “Once you start developing, others will follow.”
A new training lab for heating and air conditioning technicians was officially opened last week in a partnership between SAIT and Lennox Canada Inc.
The facility includes a mock-up basement, complete with concrete floor, rafters and duct work, but more headroom than many basements.
There’s also a row of 10 furnaces of different ages and makes and another of 10 different air conditioners.
Lennox employees, dealer employees, apprenticeship students and SAIT continuing education students will learn in the lab. Some quick-start pre-apprenticeship students will use it as well, says Larry Rosia, SAIT’s dean of construction, trades and technology.
The Lennox facility will benefit SAIT faculty by helping them keep abreast of the latest technology, he said. John Bergsma, president of Lennox Canada Inc., said the company was planning a western training facility in Calgary anyway when the opportunity arose to form a partnership with SAIT.
Keeping instruction relevant and up to date is a challenge for schools, and the partnership also benefits Lennox.
“We get to see students we wouldn’t otherwise,” he said. Lennox’s eastern training facility in Brampton, Ont., near Toronto, isn’t affiliated with a school.
Instructor Steve Sears, who had his own company before being hired as a teacher, says becoming a full-time instructor was something he wanted to do.
When technicians attending classes notice a model they haven’t dealt with before, that’s the furnace they’re working on that day.
“I mis-adjust them,” says Sears. “A guy asks, ‘What’s wrong with it?’ and I say, ‘I’m the homeowner and I’ve been cold for two days. That’s why I called you.’ They love it.”
Calgary property taxpayers started getting their city assessment notices last week, listing the market values of real estate for municipal taxation.
They show an average 10-per-cent increase for single residential properties this year.
Residential owners whose property went up in value less than 10 per cent will see their taxes drop due to the reassessment, and those whose properties went up more than 10 per cent will see their taxes rise. The assessments are revenue-neutral, so the city gains no new money from reassessment. City council sets the actual property tax rates in May.
New market value assessments have been prepared for more than 338,000 properties. About 59 per cent of single residential properties will see a property tax decrease, and 88 per cent will see an increase or decrease of no more than 10 per cent. Sixty-five per cent of non-residential properties will see an increase or decrease of no more than 10 per cent from reassessment.
Tax notices will be mailed at the end of May and taxes are due June 30.
Projects in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer are among the first eight announced under the Canada-Alberta Affordable Housing Program Agreement.
More than 420 new units are involved.
“The development of these units shows the deep commitments of the governments of Canada and Alberta to affordable housing for the people of this province,” said Health Minister Anne McLellan, MP for Edmonton West, on behalf of Transport Minister David Collenette, who is responsible for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
