e4c plans to add 19 new transitional housing beds to the site. Its emergency women’s shelter would be relocated from the Gibson Block to this new building with 50 shelter beds,
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Edmonton will sell land in the Quarters at a deep discount to a non-profit for social housing, shelter and office spaces in a move some councillors hope will spur more private development interest in the core neighbourhood.
City council’s executive committee agreed Wednesday to sell the parcels adjacent to Kinistinâw Park, between 102A Avenue and 103 Avenue, for $1,000 to Edmonton City Church Corporation, known as e4c. Councillors were impressed with the proposal for the mix of social housing with office spaces that will bring in about 70 employees and add foot traffic to the area. There were concerns about the loss of a historic building that would be demolished in the process, the Joseph Reed Residence, but the sale was ultimately approved 3-1.
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e4c plans to add 19 new transitional housing beds to the site. Its emergency women’s shelter would be relocated from the Gibson Block to this new building with 50 shelter beds, and some market housing, alongside its other social services and office spaces, all under one roof.
The ward representative for the area, Coun. Anne Stevenson, said Wednesday it’s an exciting development with a “stunning” building that will bring something “beautiful and long-lasting” to the area.
“I really think it can be an anchor to continue building the momentum in the Quarters. It will have a very positive impact in the immediate area, but also enable you to keep providing the incredible services you do for thousands of Edmontonians across the whole city,” she said during the meeting Wednesday morning.
The city estimates the land’s value is more than $3 million. The property has been listed for sale for more than three years, with little interest from private buyers.
Ward pihêsiwin Coun. Tim Cartmell sees the potential for the project to inspire more development in the area.
“We’ve done just about everything we can as an administration to try to jump-start development in, frankly, a neighbourhood that is blocks away from the core of the city that has its own LRT station now,” he said. “I think we need to do everything we can to try to incent development in that area and try to begin to leverage the investments we’ve already made in that infrastructure in that LRT station.”
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The non-profit still needs to finance construction but getting the land was the first step. Land is something the city can offer for housing, Cartmell said.
“We don’t have a lot of money. We have a lot of land. Our part of this is kicking in the land, and I think it’s a good idea,” he said.
Sandy Pon, chair of the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative, welcomes the development, calling e4c an “exemplary neighbour” in Chinatown. Her group facilitated talks with locals and businesses in recent weeks and said community feedback is positive.
“The new build, with more employees and residents, will bring economic benefits to the small businesses and social vibrancy and utilization of the amenities and park space along with community security, safety,” she said at the meeting.
She hopes this will encourage more developments in the southern part of Chinatown, around the Quarters.
Historic building lost
Constructing the new building will mean demolishing an old one — the Joseph Reed Residence.
The building is on the city’s historic inventory list but not legally protected, notes the council report: “The existing residential building was constructed in 1912 and is significant for its association with early residential development within the Boyle Street neighbourhood and for its association with Joseph H. Reed, a partner in Mitchell and Reed Auction House.”
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Barb Spencer, e4c executive director, told council they can’t afford to preserve it or use the site in the proposed building. But the non-profit hopes to commemorate the history with plaques in a new community garden.
“I went inside. I wandered through, I looked at the outside,” she said. “To look at that and try to save it was compromising the whole footprint of the purpose-built building that we were looking at developing.”
Preserving it would cost about $1 million, she said, which made her think about the school lunches e4c provides in Edmonton: “I can buy a lot of lunches for a million dollars.”
Coun. Karen Principe said the project was “wonderful” but she voted against it because of the demolition of the historic site and because Boyle Street already has more than 16 per cent affordable housing in the neighbourhood.
“I understand the demand and the need for this, and I appreciate what you do for our community. However, I am concerned with demolishing this building,” she said.
lboothby@postmedia.com
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