It’s a project of blockbuster proportions and comes with a budget to match.

At a pricetag of more than $100 million, Westcorp Properties Inc.’s Holyrood Boulevard redevelopment would completely transform five blocks of a staid, older section of southeastern Edmonton into a modern, urban village.

Image courtesy of Kasian Kennedy Architecture
Westcorp’s Holyrood Boulevard redevelopment aims to help revitalize the southeastern Edmonton community off 85th Street.

The mixed-use, three-phase development would see a series of new residential buildings of between three and five storeys share the billing with a limited number of selected retail and commercial services.

A congregate care seniors building, a hotel/resort style facility that would include kitchens in each unit and a congregate dining area for all its residents, along with a form of onsite medical care, rounds out the plan for this five- to seven- year undertaking.

Bounded by the avenues of 90th and 95th on each end, the rejuvenated five-block stretch off 85th Street would help to revitalize the district, says Westcorp’s Randy Ferguson.

The concept is to create a project that injects new life into an existing district as opposed to creating additional urban sprawl, adds Ferguson, Westcorp’s senior vice-president.

“This project came about because of heartfelt thinking about how people want to live in their neighbourhoods,” says Ferguson. “We’re just awakening in North America to how our inner cores, like Holyrood, are hollowing out.”

As residential neighbourhoods get older, he says, kids eventually grow up and move out, and the family benefits that came with the children begin to disappear. “Then there are no children to come in to use the schools, while the population for the church parishes diminish and soon local retail begins to falter – it moves to new retail nodes in new communities,” says Ferguson.

This downward spiral can result in devastation for many mature, urban neighbourhoods. However, urban village projects such as Holyrood Boulevard aim to change this by stemming the exodus and providing area residents with what they need right where they live.

In part, this is done by getting people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks.

Holyrood Boulevard, for example, includes retail and commercial space. Once completed, a bank, pharmacy, dry cleaner, a cafe and a bistro would all be within walking distance of a resident’s doorstep.

To date, the first phase at 95th Avenue has been built at a cost of about $11 million. Composed of two 4.5-storey residential buildings with a total of 95 units, it went on the market in the fall of 2003.

Should the remainder of the project go ahead – phases 2 and 3 are still in the community consultation stage with a proposed rezoning request yet to make its way to Edmonton city council – it would also include a market grocer, in this case Overwaitea Foods’ Save-On Foods.

But unlike a typical full-scale supermarket, this outlet would focus more on serving area needs with an emphasis on pre-packaged food and meals, following Save-On’s model just outside Edmonton’s downtown core at Jasper Avenue and 109th Street.

Phase 2, at the other end of the development at 90th Avenue, would be the next to come online. Between 95 and 100 residential units would be constructed above the 40,000- sq.-ft. Save-On store, along with two additional residential buildings, both with about six townhomes and a varying level of additional residential spaces and 4,500 sq. ft. of retail space. Filling out phase 2 is the congregate care seniors’ complex. Westcorp is anticipating it will take two years to complete this aspect of the development.

Phase 3 would link phase 1 and phase 2 to complete the overall development.

Current plans are for two five-level residential buildings, each with 160 to 180 units, including amenities such as workout facilities and resident-only library and theatre rooms.

The timeline for phase 3 is tentatively set at three years after construction starts on phase 2.

Phases 2 and 3 are projected to cost $100 million.

While a newly formed sub-committee of the Holyrood Community League would not comment on whether it is for or against the project – at this stage it says it is just taking the pulse of the community – Ferguson says there could be some opposition.

“Older, established neighbourhoods do not want to embrace change and you’re asking them to change the way they think of their own neighbourhood,” he says.

Concerns about property values, the type of people moving in and increased traffic are to be expected, he adds.

On the other hand, Ferguson says most people who move into urban village projects generally already live in the neighbourhood.

He adds it brings in new housing at a variety of affordability levels and gives people the chance to enjoy the benefits of living in a house without the same upkeep and responsibility.