3 Eau Claire is going to dramatically alter the ever-changing Calgary skyline, offering splendid retail, office and residential opportunities in the developed west-end area.
Representative and director of development Norman Starnes says he has been working on the project, owned by a Calgary-based consortium 3 Eau Claire Developments Inc., since he was able to purchase the land through Tim Sommer of Cushman & Wakefield four years ago. The prime site is on the parking lot at 6th Street and 3rd Avenue S.W. immediately across from the classy Shaw Court.
Close but no cigar.
The average MLS sale price for a single-family home in Calgary flirted in May with a new record level but ended up just short.
According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, single-family home sales in the city averaged $502,065 on 1,710 transactions during the month. That’s the second highest average price ever and only the second time it has topped the half-million dollar mark.
The peak was set in July 2007 at $505,920.
The downward slide of oil prices may lead some companies to trim their capital spending plans, but analysts suggest the bigger projects are not in jeopardy, at least not yet.
The price of oil as fallen roughly 20 per cent from its highs of the year amid rising concerns about the strength of the global economy and falling worries about political unrest in the Middle East.
The plunge has raised questions about the future of the billions of dollars worth of projects on the books for both the conventional oilpatch in Canada and the oilsands.
Enbridge Inc. said Tuesday that almost 60 per cent of the aboriginal communities along its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline route have accepted an equity position in the $5.5 billion project,
“We made it available to about 45 of the aboriginal communities along the right-of-way,” said Paul Stanway, manager of Northern Gateway Communications for Enbridge. “Almost 60 per cent of those eligible communities along the right-of-way have now signed agreements to be partners with us in ownership of Northern Gateway.”
CALGARY — TransCanada Corp will build a $4-billion pipeline to serve Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s planned liquefied natural gas plant on British Columbia’s northern coast, the company said on Tuesday.
TransCanada, Canada’s No. 1 pipeline company, said it would design and build a 700-kilometre line capable of shipping 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the Dawson Creek area to Kitimat, where three LNG plants, including Shell’s facility, are planned.
Northeastern British Columbia contains some of the world’s largest unconventional natural gas reserves.
“Well, they might not be going quite to zero but …,” says a portfolio manager. The subject at hand is natural gas prices and the manager sees nothing but bad news ahead.
To an investor, this is a tipoff to start getting bullish. Natural gas and the stocks of those who produce it are in the doghouse. Market sentiment is near all-time lows, which conveniently matches natural gas prices.
When professional managers get as bearish as they are now, investors should perk up. We are most likely near the bottom for natural gas prices. We may not be exactly there – the summer might bring fresh lows – but we’re close. Investors should be prepared because even modest price improvements and a change in sentiment could propel some stocks upward.
A sputtering U.S. job market is encouraging supporters seeking to force President Barack Obama to approve TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline before the November election.
A report last week that U.S. employers added in May the fewest workers in a year underscores the need for the $5.3-billion pipeline, which would carry heavy crude from Alberta to Nebraska, according to Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota. Hoeven is lobbying to include a measure in a transportation spending bill that would fast track the project. Read the full article here.
EDMONTON — Barring another global recession — a critical, albeit unpredictable factor — Alberta is likely heading into its most severe labour crunch in history.
With the provincial economy expanding by 5.2 per cent in 2011 — tops in Canada — and oil prices showing signs of stabilizing after a recent soft patch, all signs point to a hot summer ahead.
EDMONTON - Alberta’s carbon research fund said Wednesday it is offering $40 million in support for innovative renewable energy projects.
The Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp. is seeking projects that might include wind generation, geothermal energy, run-of-river (which requires little or no water storage) hydroelectricity as well as solar or biomass projects.
Chairman Eric Newell said the fund will be used to subsidize projects that are innovative in various ways, including through technology, technology application, geography, finance, partnerships or bridging the gap to broad deployment.
COMOX, B.C. – While British Columbia fishermen were concerned about reduced salmon stocks returning a few years ago, realtor Dave Procter noticed a trend of his own.
People from the Prairie provinces, who had been the predominant buyers of resort properties in the Comox Valley, started going to depressed United States real estate markets instead.
“We’re still getting the retirees,” Procter, who heads up Dave Procter Realty with Re/Max in Comox, said in an interview.
Accelerated approvals for temporary foreign workers and provisions that allow employers to pay them up to 15 per cent less than Albertans will depress wages for oilsands workers, says the province’s labour federation.
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, presented a torn-up paycheque to staff at federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office in Calgary Friday to protest changes he says will rip off an estimated 100,000 workers building and operating heavy oil facilities.
“Construction companies have convinced the Harper government that costs are out of control and that desperate measures are need,” said McGowan, “but these changes will just make it tougher for ordinary people to get their fair share of the resource pie.”
EDMONTON - Construction of new housing in Edmonton rose again last month, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Friday.
The first five months of 2012 saw 33 per cent more housing units started than during the same period last year.
“Generally, I think we’re looking at a pretty solid housing market right now,” said Christina Butchart, senior market analyst with the Crown corporation. “There are pretty good economic fundamentals supporting housing demand.”
Much of that growth comes from multi-family dwellings, a category that includes highrise condominiums like the recently announced Ultima and Fox Towers projects downtown.
Canada’s east-west economic gap was apparent in this morning’s employment report. Alberta continues to generate jobs at a fairly rapid pace, while nationally employment remains constant. After a couple months of strong national growth, the slowdown out east will give Mr. Carney more reason to pause with respect to raising interest rates.
According to Statistics Canada, Alberta added 9.8 thousand jobs in May of which 8.2 thousand were fulltime positions. This pushed the provincial unemployment rate down from 4.9 to 4.5 per cent—the lowest level since the onset of the recession. As a general rule of thumb an unemployment rate of 5 per cent is roughly balanced, with the ball really in the employee’s court once it dips below 4 per cent.