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Old 02-18-2021, 08:56 PM   #1
Hack&Lube
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Default Calgary Openings, Closings, and Developments

Since the latest recession began half a decade ago, and with the add-on effect of Covid-19, I've seen a lot of change in this city. Many mainstays of the city that have been with us for decades are disappearing and at the same time, there are a lot of developments happening such as the new Event Centre.

I've been coming to this forum since the early 2000s and I thought that it would be the perfect place to have a thread dedicated to tracking changes to retail, public venues, demolitions, new construction, etc.
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Old 02-18-2021, 08:57 PM   #2
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Calgary Downtown / Eau Claire YMCA to close permanently



https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...manently-close

The downtown branch opened Oct. 17, 1988, and has contributed to the vibrancy of Calgary’s core in the 30-plus years
(...)

On Thursday, YMCA Calgary announced the downtown location will not reopen following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, citing financial and economic pressures.


I just saw this news article. I remember visiting as a child but I don't think I've been inside the Eau Claire YMCA for over two decades. There's a lot of great late 80s architecture in this building. Will it sit empty? Would another gym/fitness company take over? When I lived in the area, I remember many seniors were reliant on this pool for their daily exercise.

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Old 02-18-2021, 09:46 PM   #3
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Calgary Downtown / Eau Claire YMCA to close permanently



https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...manently-close

The downtown branch opened Oct. 17, 1988, and has contributed to the vibrancy of Calgary’s core in the 30-plus years
(...)

On Thursday, YMCA Calgary announced the downtown location will not reopen following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, citing financial and economic pressures.

That's sad to hear. I was a member there for about 8 years from about 2004ish. It was a great place for a lunch time workout or pickup basketball game.

My company transitioned us to work from home so I ended up cancelling my membership. I can only imagine how covid has multiplied that issue now. Was a really nice place and well looked after.
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Old 02-19-2021, 07:26 AM   #4
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I shudder to think how many live music venues we will lose.

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Old 02-19-2021, 07:44 AM   #5
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Calgary Downtown / Eau Claire YMCA to close permanently



https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...manently-close

The downtown branch opened Oct. 17, 1988, and has contributed to the vibrancy of Calgary’s core in the 30-plus years
(...)

On Thursday, YMCA Calgary announced the downtown location will not reopen following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, citing financial and economic pressures.


I just saw this news article. I remember visiting as a child but I don't think I've been inside the Eau Claire YMCA for over two decades. There's a lot of great late 80s architecture in this building. Will it sit empty? Would another gym/fitness company take over? When I lived in the area, I remember many seniors were reliant on this pool for their daily exercise.
I wonder if Goodlife would look to take this space? Their location at Eau Claire Market will have to close at some point in the near future once that building is torn down, but they could stay in that area with a better facility. But it would be oversized for how they operate. Unless they're willing to lease out other parts of the building. If not them, would be nice for another fitness company to take it up.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:12 AM   #6
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I wonder if Goodlife would look to take this space? Their location at Eau Claire Market will have to close at some point in the near future once that building is torn down, but they could stay in that area with a better facility. But it would be oversized for how they operate. Unless they're willing to lease out other parts of the building. If not them, would be nice for another fitness company to take it up.
That location already isn't reopening from what I have been told.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:20 AM   #7
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From a few days ago:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...tion-1.5909592

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Big things are in place for Calgary's two largest cultural institutions — Arts Commons and the Glenbow — in 2021. Not only will plans be finalized for massive renovations totalling over half-a-billion dollars, but their new leaders will start to implement their new ideas.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:23 AM   #8
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I wonder if Goodlife would look to take this space? Their location at Eau Claire Market will have to close at some point in the near future once that building is torn down, but they could stay in that area with a better facility. But it would be oversized for how they operate. Unless they're willing to lease out other parts of the building. If not them, would be nice for another fitness company to take it up.
I would assume GMVT, or whatever their name is, might be better suited to operate that operation. They took over the Edgemont Club which is a similar type of facility with multiple programs, courts, pools, etc. GoodLife doesn't run those types of operations from what I know.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:31 AM   #9
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I would assume GMVT, or whatever their name is, might be better suited to operate that operation. They took over the Edgemont Club which is a similar type of facility with multiple programs, courts, pools, etc. GoodLife doesn't run those types of operations from what I know.
I was thinking they would be one also. They're already very close by with their Calgary Place location, so not sure if that's detrimental to them in regards to recent investment/lease, plus how much they may have been impacted by COVID. But this would be an ideal building for their executive level locations.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:35 AM   #10
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That whole area is just cursed, isn't it?
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:47 AM   #11
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Losing the Eau Claire Y sucks. It was definitely a benefit for us when we were looking to move out of our condo and find a home, with quick access to it from Sunnyside it was our go to for swimming lessons for the kids and other activities.

At this point I'm thinking Eau Claire (minus Prince's island park) is just a failed community. Maybe too strong a wording? I don't know, it feels like nothing more than a vertical community with almost no life around it at ground level.
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:08 AM   #12
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Losing the Eau Claire Y sucks. It was definitely a benefit for us when we were looking to move out of our condo and find a home, with quick access to it from Sunnyside it was our go to for swimming lessons for the kids and other activities.

At this point I'm thinking Eau Claire (minus Prince's island park) is just a failed community. Maybe too strong a wording? I don't know, it feels like nothing more than a vertical community with almost no life around it at ground level.
Failure sounds appropriate. It's the lack of vibrant gathering spots for all times of the day and weekends. But there's still a ton of developable land that it can be made into something still. First get rid of Eau Claire Market.
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:12 AM   #13
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Failure sounds appropriate. It's the lack of vibrant gathering spots for all times of the day and weekends. But there's still a ton of developable land that it can be made into something still. First get rid of Eau Claire Market.
All true, but from a momentum perspective I feel like East Village is the push right now. Eau Claire may have to wait its turn to get another kick at the can so to speak, all while hoods like Beltline, Hillhurst-Sunnyside, Inglewood-Ramsay, and Bridgeland keep developing density nicely.
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:13 AM   #14
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All the condos around the Y in Eau Claire have their own fitness facilities. Some have pools. That "built-in" regular population around it, that should be it's bread-and-butter just didn't need to access it. With the economic downturn and Covid the business population wasn't around to support it either.

It'd be great if another fitness company was able to take over the space but it would be a decent sized risk for them. Huge renos would be needed to add amenities that couldn't be found elsewhere. It's just not an easy spot to access for people that don't live around it.
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:55 AM   #15
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All the condos around the Y in Eau Claire have their own fitness facilities. Some have pools. That "built-in" regular population around it, that should be it's bread-and-butter just didn't need to access it. With the economic downturn and Covid the business population wasn't around to support it either.

It'd be great if another fitness company was able to take over the space but it would be a decent sized risk for them. Huge renos would be needed to add amenities that couldn't be found elsewhere. It's just not an easy spot to access for people that don't live around it.
At the same time if the future redevelopment plan happens the Y could be a great feature for the area. Obviously the green line and Eau Claire development are somewhat uncertain and many years out so it might not make sense to sit on the asset for 10 years waiting for projects to be completed.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:05 AM   #16
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Losing the Eau Claire Y sucks. It was definitely a benefit for us when we were looking to move out of our condo and find a home, with quick access to it from Sunnyside it was our go to for swimming lessons for the kids and other activities.

At this point I'm thinking Eau Claire (minus Prince's island park) is just a failed community. Maybe too strong a wording? I don't know, it feels like nothing more than a vertical community with almost no life around it at ground level.
Agreed. Eau Claire Market is a negative anchor on its potential and they need to bulldoze it. Re-do it in a pseudo Deerfoot City style with single level shops that people actually need. Maybe small footprint Home Depot type stores, a real grocery store, have a replacement for the cineplex, even one with just a few screens. At least try to make some of the shops suitable for daily life. No more specialty olive oil stores.

I know that was the general plan to tear the market down, but clearly it's not going to happen. They'll probably just build more apartment towers to exacerbate the lack of essential shopping.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:06 AM   #17
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All true, but from a momentum perspective I feel like East Village is the push right now. Eau Claire may have to wait its turn to get another kick at the can so to speak, all while hoods like Beltline, Hillhurst-Sunnyside, Inglewood-Ramsay, and Bridgeland keep developing density nicely.
The East village is certainly a bigger eye sore.


Eau Claire was a poor concept from the start, IMO, and then losing the Hard Rock, I mean how do you even come back from that?
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:10 AM   #18
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Agreed. Eau Claire Market is a negative anchor on its potential and they need to bulldoze it. Re-do it in a pseudo Deerfoot City style with single level shops that people actually need. Maybe small footprint Home Depot type stores, a real grocery store, have a replacement for the cineplex, even one with just a few screens. At least try to make some of the shops suitable for daily life. No more specialty olive oil stores.

I know that was the general plan to tear the market down, but clearly it's not going to happen. They'll probably just build more apartment towers to exacerbate the lack of essential shopping.
More savvy development type people may need to chime in but I think even in this economy here the land is just too valuable to only put a Deerfoot City style 1 floor development in the Markets place. It's going to need density, Harvard owns the site and I just don't see them doing anything in the near future, even more so with the Green line delays and uncertainty about the station that would go on 2nd street.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:27 AM   #19
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This is the current plan, but I don't know what the odds are it gets done at this point:


https://eauclairemarket.com/redevelopment/
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Old 02-19-2021, 05:06 PM   #20
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Good thread! I was gonna start something similar recently after noticing a lot of retails/restaurants hutting up over the past few months.

Just a few I've noticed recently: (I think there's more I've seen but can't recall right now)

At Southland/Macleod, Safeway is gone (may have shut before the pandemic) as well as Izumi Sushi, Jack Astors and Tim Hortons beside Toys'r'Us.

In Deer Run, the Tim Horton's and KFC are gone. The Humpty's by the Stampede Grounds is gone.

Just found a reddit thread from last month showing a number of restaurants have shut - https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/com...shutting_down/

And a bunch of the trendier places too - https://dailyhive.com/calgary/calgar...-closures-2020
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