Welcome to Calgary. We have a job for you. We’re glad to have you and we thank you for your contribution to the city and province.
But we don’t have a place for you to live.
The flood of new Albertans and new Calgarians has put a lot of pressure on the housing market, forcing up rental rates and purchase prices.
It’s supply and demand.
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| Larry MacDougal, Business Edge |
| Mark McCullough of Canada Lands Co. stands on the site where 65 houses will be refurbished to help ease the chronic shortage of available, affordable housing in Calgary. |
It’s a challenge facing Calgary to provide transportation and amenities for the influx of newcomers. It goes deeper than amenities. It’s even a challenge to provide decent, affordable housing.
But a step to meeting this challenge is being taken just west of Crowchild Trail S.W. on a section of the former Canadian Forces base. Canada Lands Co. has donated six acres and 65 houses, both single-family and duplex, for refurbishing as low-cost rentals. They will be managed by Calgary Housing Co., the former Calhomes.
The plan came out of the work of a community advisory panel and was inaugurated at a partnership ceremony in August. Three builders are involved: Sandlewood Developments, Homes by Avi and Artisan Homes.
Abe Epp, president of Artisan Homes, said the 65 houses challenged the ingenuity of the builders. The houses were not all alike because they had been subject to different upgrades and renovations over the last 50 years.
“This is a working homeless problem, not a street people problem,” Ald. Barry Erskine said in an interview after the partnership ceremony.
A project to house single homeless workers in rooms in a former military building gave shelter to some people working on housing in the area. The work allowed them to raise cash for damage deposits or down payments, he said.
Downpayments or damage deposits can be a big hurdle in Calgary, and the city is short of housing for singles, students and families.
Stephanie Felesky, Calgary activist and Canada Lands Co. board member for Alberta, said that the desire for affordable housing came from the community advisory committee. That body has ties to all three levels of government. In a hyper-inflated housing market, many people simply can’t afford good housing.
Canada Lands Co. says it has a corporate social responsibility ethic and wants to enrich the communities in which it does business.
“Good corporate citizenship is also good business,” said Canada Lands CEO Kathy Milsom. The Crown corporation started as a vehicle for disposal of surplus federal government real estate. It moved on and is now involved in activities such as subdivision development and remediation of environmentally damaged lands.
Several speakers at the partnership ceremony noted that Calgary’s co-operative community spirit and hand-up philosophy has attracted favourable notice in other cities across the country.
A Calgary developer has struck a tentative deal for the sale of most of its shares.
Apex Corp. and Bentall Capital Limited Partnership, acting on behalf of a client, announced Bentall is to acquire all the Class A shares of Apex for $2.60 a share.
The plan is subject to the approval of Apex shareholders as well as due diligence and regulator and court approvals.
Certain major shareholders, owning 53.9 per cent of Apex, have agreed to support the deal.
At $2.60 a share, the Apex transaction would be worth about $57 million.
A Victoria real estate company with most of its holdings in Alberta reported its best results so far for the nine months ending June 30. Western Spirit Investments Ltd. reported revenue of $2.8 million, up 31 per cent from the same period in fiscal 2000. Funds from operations were $450,718, up 96 per cent.
Western Spirit owns 11 properties in Toronto and London, Ont., Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria. By value, about 55 per cent is in Alberta, 23 per cent in Ontario and 22 per cent in B.C. It trades on the Canadian Venture Exchange.
Calgary real estate company TGS Properties Ltd. closed the summer with a hot week – it posted record second-quarter and mid-year financials.
TGS also made 18th spot on Profit magazine’s list of Canada’s hottest startups for 2000.
The company’s second-quarter results showed revenue of $14.9 million, up 224 per cent from the previous year, and funds from operations up 382 per cent to $2.7 million or 7.4 cents a share.
For the first six months, revenue was $21.2 million, up 152 per cent to $21.2 million from $8.4 million in 2000. Funds from operations were up 166 per cent to $3 million.
TGS sold 26 lots in the Peaks of Grassi subdivision in Canmore and sold the first parcel in the Three Sisters Creek subdivision, a 10-acre multi-family site. It also bought a 165,000-sq.-ft office building in Edmonton.
TGS specializes in office buildings, community malls and industrial facilities, as well as the Three Sisters development. It trades on the TSE under the symbol TGP.
Calloway Properties Inc. reported net income of $187,513 for the quarter ending June 30.
That includes the gain from the sale of a building.
Meanwhile, Calloway’s Okotoks development is 87-per-cent leased, with rental rates ahead of budget.
Calloway Properties trades on the CDNX under the symbol CWT.
Web Watch:
www.western-spirit.com
www.tgsproperties.com
