Centron Confident About City's Economy

 
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Watching the glass rising up the exterior of the Centre 10 office tower on 10th Avenue S.W. is a reflection of the aggressive confidence of Centron Group in this city's economy.

The roof is being poured on the 10-storey building that will offer 355,000 square feet of office and 20,000 square feet of retail space. Like all of Centron's developments it is being built on spec. With three floors under negotiations and the National Energy Board taking 150,000 square feet and Mawer Investment management committed to 30,000 square feet, there are only two other floors remaining to be leased.

It's a great location and Cole Harris, president of Centron, says he has also purchased the two-acre property directly across 10th Avenue to the railway tracks that stretches the entire block between 4th and 5th Streets. The land is in the design process to accommodate another 600,000 square feet of Beltline office development.

Centron is also busy with suburban office development. Construction begins this week on a 6.5-acre site on the west bluff overlooking Deerfoot Meadows and the Bow River and its park areas.

Facing onto Blackfoot Trail, Blackfoot Point Business Park is a four-building complex designed by NORR Architects Planners totalling 135,000 square feet of high-end suburban office development. Two of the buildings are single-storey, located on the perimeter of the site and the others are two-storey in the central area with a full parkade underground.

The buildings' architecture is relatively contemporary in nature with its use of colour, articulation, geometries and textures, using cultured stone, stucco and coloured glass. Floor plans are an open space layout allowing for flexible size .

They will be connected together by a winding formal pathway system that offers large plaza area with bench seating and less formal gathering places situated within the top of the bluffs.

Colliers International has listed the space that will be ready for occupancy in the fall of this year.

The park will be accessed by a new road at 85th Avenue S.E. just to the south of Heritage Drive, giving good access to Deerfoot and Glenmore Trails.

Centron has seven developments in the Blackfoot Trail and Highfield areas.

Next project in development is a three office building complex to be built on the current site of Fountain Tire on the northeast corner of the Glenmore Trail and Blackfoot Trail interchange.

The site next to Maple Leaf Self Storage has been acquired and plans are well underway for Fountain Court, another 90,000 square feet of suburban space on one of the most prominent locations in the city with a very high volume of daily traffic passing by.

Larry Davis of the Mill Group, which owns and operates the Eau Claire Barley Mill, the Rose and Crown on 4th Street S.W. and Mul-doons on 130th Street S.E., has opened a new pub in the Ronmor community of Silverado. Located on the south end of Sheriff King Street, the Kildares Ale House features and open-beamed country area with a huge stone fireplace, a dark wooded formal section, large open space, and a private dining room overlooking an attractive patio area.

Jason Gieck, general manager and operating partner promises the same great food Mill Group is known for and 20 beers on tap.

Calgary Co-op is partnering with Edmonton-based Localize Services to deliver a major regional marketing campaign in its 24 food centres.

Localize is providing Co-op with shelf labels that identify local and regional foods, and assigning items with a score of between zero and 10, with 10 being considered the most local.

The labels are easy to identify and each has a quick-response (QR) code that will allow customers to find out more about the product with their smartphones.

Meghan Dear and Lita McDonald founded Localize in 2011 because they felt there was a need to demystify local foods and create opportunities for regional food businesses in mainstream grocery stores.

With over 440,000 members the Calgary Co-op gives them a great opportunity to help support local producers.

DAVID PARKER APPEARS TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. READ HIS COLUMNS ONLINE AT CALGARYHERALD.COM/BUSINESS. HE CAN BE REACHED AT 403-830-4622 OR EMAIL INFO@DAVIDPARKER.CA

© Calgary Herald 2013