Recession Puts a Hold on Downtown Calgary Construction

In the not-too-distant past, construction cranes used2008 and resulting recession essentially killed
to be a ubiquitous sight in Calgary. During the realdevelopment for Calgary. He said that the call for
estate boom, some six million square feet of spacenew office and condo buildings was flat during the
was added to downtown Calgary's office market.past 18 months. He said he was amazed at how
Now, most of the cranes have gone awayquickly the demand was extinguished.
downtown as the building fever has subsided, at leastTwo large projects, Eighth Avenue Place and The
for now. The economic recession has stymied orBow, will be completed in the next two years. At
cancelled the construction of a number of residentialmore than a million square feet, Eighth Avenue Place
condominium buildings. It is estimated that 17 ofis expected to be ready for its first occupants in
these projects have been affected since 2006.November. The Bow, a 1.7 million square-foot building,
Greg Kwong, CB Richard Ellis' regional managingwill be completed in mid-2011.
director for Alberta, said that the economic crash of