Midtown Station Update

October 2023

On September 30, 2023 the developer of Midtown Station has submitted a Land Use Application Amendment (LOC) with the City of Calgary for the Midtown Station project.

The application is currently under review and is accepting comments from residents until October 16, 2023.

This amendment would change the zoning for future redevelopment of approximately 14.02 hectare (34.65 acre) of land in Fisher park into a mixed-use urban village, centered around a new LRT station. The proposed development, known as “Midtown Station” would include transit-oriented, high-density residential development; office, retail, hotel, and community facilities; and public open space.

This application would allow for:

  • a maximum building height of 160 metres (about 45 storeys), an increase from the current maximum of 12 metres,
  • an anticipated total building area of 677,949 square metres,
  • an anticipated 6,994 residential units and,
  • 124,464 square metres of commercial/office area,
  • small % non-market (affordable) housing potentially included.

Submit your comments to the proposed zoning changes to the City of Calgary here.

Details of the application can be found on the City development map.

More information on the IBI/Arcadis site here.

 

June 2023

Arcadis Professional Services (Canada) Inc. made a presentation at the Fairview Community Association Annual General Meeting this year updating our community about the Midtown Station Plan.

Click here for a link to the project’s website where you will find the updated information presented at the 2023 AGM as well as FAQs, comment section and project contact info.

 

January 2022, Fairview In Focus

Midtown Station Update

In the Fall of 2020 IBI Group and Cantana Investments made a splash when they announced plans to redevelop a plot of land adjacent to Fairview into a mixed used community called “Midtown Station.” IBI presented their plans to the Community at the Fairview Community Association’s 2020 Annual General Meeting, and there was a flurry of press in local media including Global news and The Calgary Herald in early October, 2020.

It’s fair to say that this ambitious plan was met with a mixture of excitement and apprehension by many community residents. Perhaps you felt a mixture of both.

In the months since being announced, Fairviewers have been keenly watching for updates on Midtown but there have not been too many releases to the public since Fall 2020. So I thought I’d go over some of the steps that have been taken so far by the developers and I also reached out to Stephen Shawcross, a director with IBI group to find out what to expect in the near-future with this project.

What’s been done so far:

IBI group conducted an engagement campaign with Fairview residents in the Fall of 2020. You may remember getting a postcard in the mail, inviting you to complete the online survey. The results of this engagement can be found on the midtown website (www.ibipublicengagement.com/midtown/index.htm). The report is a good read and gives you a sense about what your neighbours might be thinking about the project.

When reading the engagement summary, you’ll find that the new C-train station and its connection to the Fairview Community was one of the main sources of both positive and negative feedback from residents. Stephen mentioned that in response to the concerns raised in the engagement, the developers have purchased land on the Fairview side of the train tracks in order to house security personnel 24/7 to provide a buffer between the Train station and our Community.

In November, 2020 IBI met virtually with members from the Fairview Community Association to help conceptualize what a community park to be located within Midtown could look like and what amenities Fairview residents might be interested in. The results of this design exercise are also located on the midtown website.

What are the next steps:

IBI continues to pursue land use re-designation for the 30 acre site. Stephen expects that decision to go before council in the 3rd quarter of 2022. Much of the background work being done until then is focused on traffic impacts to the Macleod trail corridor, and a “Special Development Agreement” in relation to the LRT station.

If the re-designation is successful, development permits for the C-train station, and individual buildings in the first phase of the project would follow. The City of Calgary has a service where you can see all development permits in progress, including the one for Midtown (LOC 2019-0082). Go to developmentmap.calgary.ca and you can see the area affected by the Midtown Land use re-designation.

Stephen predicts construction on the first phase could begin in 2023/2024, with the C-Train station being a part of the first phase, but taking up to 2 years to complete.

 I asked Stephen about how the persistent economic woes in Calgary’s economy might affect the viability of this project. He told me that the investors behind Midtown are focused on a long-term time horizon. They point to independent research which finds Calgary with it’s highly educated and young population, high quality of life and low cost of living remains well positioned for future growth. Therefore their investment decisions are less concerned about the economic stagnation that has been with us since the middle of the last decade.

 Lastly, Stephen told us that the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Midtown engagement website is getting updated as new information arises and so it is a good place to check periodically for updates.

Fairview’s role

Hopefully you got a chance to voice your opinion in the online engagement which took place back in 2020. When such a transformative project is being proposed so close to our community, it is important to keep up to date on any updates and if you have concerns or questions, let your voice be heard. You can do this by reaching out to IBI directly at midtown@ibiengage.com, by contacting our ward 11 City Councillor Kourtney Penner, or of course by reaching out to a board member from the Community Association. For its part, your Fairview Community Association’s top priority is and always will be to ensure that any development (big or small) that occurs in our area will preserve or enhance the aspects of our community we hold dear.

In Closing, we can probably all agree that our part of the City will look somewhat different 25 years from now. Midtown Station is one developer’s vision of how the surrounding area could be built for what they see as the wants and needs of Calgarians in the future.

FYI:

For those of you who have not been following, Midtown station is described by IBI group as a “vibrant, 24/7 urban village, featuring an array of iconic, high-density residential towers, mid-rise apartments, and stately town-homes; modern office buildings in a campus-like setting; and convenience and specialty retail shops, hotels, restaurants, and bistros.” This development would be built in stages starting in the south and finishing in the north over an approximately 25 year period. Cantana investments has already purchased nearly all of the land south of Glenmore Trail, and between Fisher Street and the C Train tracks totalling over 30 acres. One of the defining features of this development, and also one that is being followed closely by Fairview residents is the construction of a new C-Train Station located approximately midway between Chinook and Heritage Stations. This new “Midtown Station” would be paid for by the developer and have connections into the Fairview Community off of Flint Place SE (near where Kahane Law has their offices).