Live, work, play: How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed Edmonton's Downtown

0
203

Lisa van Essen has noticed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many things including the downtown in Edmonton, March 1, 2021.Lisa van Essen has noticed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many things including the downtown in Edmonton, March 1, 2021. Photo by Ed Kaiser /20092735A

Article content

Lisa Van Essen misses what Edmonton’s Downtown used to offer her before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 32-year-old senior development officer with the federal government moved from the Highlands neighbourhood to the city’s Downtown core three years ago, lured not just by the prospect of a shorter commute to the office but also by the chance to live, work and play in the heart of the city.

Before the pandemic, she would stop by the Nook Cafe for a quick breakfast, go to the gym at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, or have drinks after work with her colleagues.

Then, last March, everything changed.

“I wake up in the morning and if I have my window open, I hear birds,” she said. “There’s no honk of the school bus, there’s no noise of the commuter traffic. It’s silent. I could hear the wind in the trees and the birds. It was like I wasn’t in the city at all.”

That quiet is emblematic of the damage the pandemic has caused to cities’ urban cores, which some experts worry will be tough to reverse without support from senior levels of government. In Edmonton’s case, after years of efforts to get more people Downtown that progress has flatlined.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Building a better Downtown

Edmonton’s Downtown has faced adversity before.

Revitalizing the core was on the agenda of city councillors for years as Downtown was considered a ghost town after 5 p.m. but it was only in the last two decades that momentum started to shift towards that goal. Some progress was made in the early 2000s with the East Jasper Village development but the real turning point came in 2011 when the city started formal discussions with Katz Group on a proposed new arena, which would eventually become Rogers Place.

Article content

The city has spent roughly $750-million on projects, excluding the LRT, over the past 10 years, including the Jasper Avenue developments, Alex Decoteau Park and the 100 Street Funicular. Private developers have invested another $3 billion, according to the city.

Artist’s rendering of the Ice District.Artist’s rendering of the Ice District. Photo by Supplied /EDMwp

ICE District was the heart of that revitalization. The vision behind the $2.5-billion development, which spans 25 acres of land, was to create a sports and entertainment destination for residents to live and play. With skyrises, the new arena, huge dining halls, food courts and an outdoor public plaza, Edmonton Journal’s David Staples announced in a 2018 column that the city’s “Downtown is back with a vengeance.”

Rogers Place, the city’s controversial $483.5-million arena, is the focal point of the ICE District. Home to the Edmonton Oilers, the Edmonton Oil Kings, and the number one venue for concerts, the arena has visibly boosted the number of people visiting Downtown since it opened in 2016.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Bryan Schmidt, operating partner and general manager of Downtown’s Mercer Tavern, has seen that firsthand. Office workers used to make up the bulk of patrons to the bar and restaurant, but after Rogers Place opened the tavern’s customer base shifted. Often, visitors would stop in before or after crossing the street to go to a show or hockey game.

“It’s absolutely crazy when the arena events are on,” Schmidt said. “It’s something else when there’s an arena event. The first few years before the arena, there was a lot of construction (and) parking wasn’t as bad. There was a lot going for the Mercer building itself with all new startups inside of it. It was just a buzzing environment.”

Although the arena garnered the biggest fuss, it was one of several projects in the core over a span of roughly 10 years. New residential towers went up, the Stanley A. Milner Library and the Royal Alberta Museum opened their doors and the construction of a Loblaws CityMarket was planned on the site of the old Greyhound terminal.

The transformation was called a Renaissance for the city’s Downtown in a 2017 report by the Downtown Business Association (DBA) that noted Edmontonians’ saw the core as a good place to eat and be entertained.

“Facts like these, coupled with the surging growth of the dining options in Downtown, speak volumes about how much people have embraced the changes taking place in Downtown,” the report said.

Living, working, playing Downtown changes

All of the hustle and bustle came to a halt suddenly in March 2020, and there’s no guessing when it will start again.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

On March 12, the NHL season was suspended. Five days later, the Alberta government limited indoor gatherings to 15 people, closed non-essential businesses and prohibited in-person dining. The ICE District, and Downtown as a whole, slowed to a crawl almost instantly.

Fewer Edmontonians are heading to the core now than before the pandemic. More than 75 per cent of residents who responded to a September survey by the Association for Canadian Studies said they were avoiding the city centre, largely for fear of catching the virus.

Empty spaces iconic to Edmonton like Churchill Square are mostly empty on March 18, 2020, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.Empty spaces iconic to Edmonton like Churchill Square are mostly empty on March 18, 2020, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Shaughn Butts /Postmedia

But there are also fewer reasons than ever before to venture to inner-city.

Thousands of office dwellers are working remotely indefinitely, with some companies waiting for the general population to be vaccinated. Events and festivities that once drew huge crowds are either cancelled or going virtual. Some businesses remain closed due to public health restrictions while others are open with limited capacity. Although dine-in service at restaurants resumed in February, dining with people outside one’s household is not permitted unless they live alone. Indoor gatherings have been prohibited since November.

Lynsae Moon, co-owner of the Nook Cafe, said there’s no reason for people to come Downtown anymore as the pandemic has made existing problems such as congestion from construction and parking fees worse.

“It’s a really hard sell,” she said. “Unless you live close to Downtown, you can’t just walk (here). It’s not walkable, necessarily. Then you add in all these pieces of construction, which were frustrating before. People weren’t so worried…about their proximity to other people. Downtown was already a bit inaccessible and now it’s even more inaccessible.”

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Living Downtown has become a harder sell as well.

With more time now spent at home, some have sought out bigger spaces. Between 2019 and 2020, apartment vacancies rose across the city. Downtown, two-bedroom units saw the biggest jump, from 7.7 per cent to 12.5 per cent, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The decreased demand has caused the average price of a one-bedroom apartment to drop by nearly 10 per cent to $1,027.

Meanwhile, single-family home sales hit a 10 year high in January – a typically slow month. Purchases were up more than 50 per cent from 2020, and 8.5 per cent from December, according to the Realtors Association of Edmonton (REA).

RAE chair Tom Shearer said there has been a migration of people leaving the Downtown to purchase their first home but at the same time, others are buying up those vacant condos.

“Right now people have increased buying power because of mortgage rates,” he said. “I think a lot of people who have been living in these Downtown condos (are) able to move to value…because maybe they’re a little older and they’re ready for a little more space.”

Shearer said people’s condos are more liquid than years prior, which has allowed purchasers to make moves.

How the pandemic has impacted Downtown

Although the pandemic’s full impact on Edmonton’s core will remain to be seen for years, there are already visible signs of the damage wrought by a year of fewer people venturing into the core.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Along Jasper Avenue, down 95 Street and inside Edmonton City Centre Mall, eye-catching signs pitch “leasing opportunities.” 

The advertisements are plastered across buildings with boarded-up windows and stores with black sheets to prevent curious onlookers from peeking in. For both drivers and pedestrians, it can be difficult to differentiate businesses that have temporarily closed and those that have closed for good.

A walker in a mask walks past a building with a For Lease sign decorated with hearts at 122 Street and Jasper Avenue during the COVID-19 pandemic in Edmonton, on Sunday, July 19, 2020. Photo by Ian Kucerak/PostmediaA walker in a mask walks past a building with a For Lease sign decorated with hearts at 122 Street and Jasper Avenue during the COVID-19 pandemic in Edmonton, on Sunday, July 19, 2020. Photo by Ian Kucerak/Postmedia Photo by Ian Kucerak /Postmedia

There is no data on how many businesses have permanently shuttered during the pandemic. The DBA is currently working with the city to find that out.

Inside Commerce Place, the food court’s McDonald’s is kept behind bars with a sign promising to be back. Over at Manulife Place, Henry Singer has limited when they are open to only a few days and hours. The Hudson’s Bay has been gated off in the City Centre Mall after it closed for good in the fall due to the pandemic. Nothing remains of Le Château besides its sign after the company filed for bankruptcy.

In the ICE District, the CityMarket grocery store that was expected to open last year has been pushed back to 2022.

The statistics that are available show a grim picture. Edmonton has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country, at 11.9 per cent as of last month, up from 7.8 in February 2020. The CBRE expects office vacancies to remain at a record-high of 21 per cent throughout 2021.

Downtowns particularly have been put in jeopardy by the pandemic, which has accelerated existing challenges, says a report by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI). Edmonton’s homelessness problem, for instance, has surged during the pandemic, with about 1,700 people without a home in March to nearly 2,000 by the summer, according to Homeward Trust. A spotlight was placed on the issue last summer when two large tent camps were enacted Downtown. In response, the city has set up a temporary 24-7 shelter at the Edmonton Convention Centre.

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

While it is unknown whether the increased presence of the homeless population has contributed to people avoiding Downtown over the last year, homelessness has been cited as a perceived safety challenge by the DBA.

It’s a problem the city will likely continue to face after the pandemic.

Where do we go from here?

Once all public health restrictions are lifted, Downtown will naturally become a more attractive place to live, work, and play.

Schmidt, the restaurateur, said for him, there’s no doubt in his mind about the Downtown’s recovery, especially when it comes to Rogers Place.

“Rogers will (reopen). That, to me, is inevitable,” he said. “There’s just no way that doesn’t happen, whether in six months, a year, two years. It’s bound to happen.”

Dining and shopping locally will be key to the core’s recovery, and not just when things go back to normal. The support is needed now, as businesses struggle to hang on amid lower sales, to ensure there will be businesses to go back to.

But getting consumers to open their wallets is not enough.

Sandeep Agrawal, the director for the University of Alberta’s school of urban and regional planning, said if the Downtown is to recover, there needs to be an integrated strategy from all levels of government.

“There need to be more public infrastructure projects and they could be tied to some long-term goals,” he said. “I’m talking about long-term goals about climate change, carbon neutrality. Post-COVID, I think a number of things have to come together. I think the ground is pretty much set in terms of city policies and strategies (but) what I think is required is an extra push and nudge in terms of cash infusion and incentives of different sorts from the government.”

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

Agrawal stressed that any cash that does come from the government has to go to businesses first, whether that’s through projects like streetscaping improvements or incentive programs.

That’s not the only way the provincial and federal governments can help build back Edmonton’s core. Mayor Don Iveson has been vocal about needing more support to permanently solve the city’s homelessness problem, which is most prominent Downtown.

Still, Mary Rowe, CUI president and CEO, said the city and organizations like the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (AEH) are making serious strides on that, by adopting a U.S.-based model that focuses on the chronically unhoused first.

She said she sees potential in Edmonton’s empty office buildings.

“I’m hoping Downtown’s across the country will look at more conversions from offices to housing,” Rowe said. “Some kind of housing to make those Downtown neighbours more complete. (Edmonton is) ahead of the curve. You’ve been trying to make your Downtown a complete neighbour.”

A silver lining to the pandemic, Rowe said, is that it has provided cities with the opportunity to hit pause and reflect on the future.

“It’s a really important moment for those of us who are engaged in building cities to really reflect carefully and think about how do we actually introduce the kinds of planning and physical interventions that make neighbourhoods more accessible, more functioning for everyone,” Rowe said. “If we’re not going to do it now, when the hell are we?”

Advertisement

Story continues below

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content

A vacant lot on the site of the former Baccarat Casino, 10128 104 Ave., in downtown Edmonton Thursday Oct. 29, 2020. Photo by David BloomA vacant lot on the site of the former Baccarat Casino, 10128 104 Ave., in downtown Edmonton Thursday Oct. 29, 2020. Photo by David Bloom

Staying put

Despite the quiet of the past year, Van Essen doesn’t regret moving Downtown. In fact, she’s keeping an eye out for a house in the vicinity.

“I don’t want to leave the city centre,” Van Essen said. “If I work from home, I could work from anywhere, but I don’t see why I should have to leave the Downtown in order to have that life.”

Eventually, a new normal will set in where she will be able to enjoy everything Downtown offered again.

“Working from home is here to stay and I think that’s going to change what Downtown looks like and what it can lead for people,” she said.

jlabine@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/jefflabine

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.