Sitting down in early November, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation CEO Kate Thompson reflected on the history of CMLC, and the transformation that her organization has ushered in.
Thompson outlined CMLC’s successes in turning a politically fraught and often times undesirable part of the city into a magnet for international attention.
“When I started in 2012, we were a company of 10 individuals, and in 2022, we’re 35 individuals working to deliver the mission behind the overall rivers district,” she said.
“I’d say what’s been interesting and successful about what CMLC has done, and we’re continuing to work on, is it’s been really important that this hasn’t become a land banking exercise.”
Go back 20, 40, or even 80 years in Calgary’s history, and it wouldn’t have been apparent to many that Calgary’s East Village would be the centre of over $3 billion in real-estate investment, and the site of thousands of new homes.
Yet the area that was once described as “skid row” by the city’s chief medical officer in 1941, has once again returned to the vibrancy and community that it originally exhibited around the turn of the century.
The St. Louis and King Eddie hotels have been given new life. The RiverWalk pathway has been transformed into one of the most vibrant and active locations for Calgarians to congregate. And, the East Village is now home to internationally recognized and locally beloved architectural masterpieces like the new Central Library and the National Music Centre.
All that from the 2007 creation of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation as an arms length city-owned corporation to oversee and implement the Rivers District Master Plan.
“It has been since our beginning our priority to build differently, to attract not only residents but developers, and do things in a way that is significant.”
“If you’re going to build something, why not make it significant and someplace that people want to come to?”
Calgary’s East Village from 2007 to 2021
Drag scroll bar left and right to reveal maps from before the creation of CMLC, to the most recent City of Calgary aerial map of the East Village.
Map source: City of Calgary, ARYN TOOMBS / FOR LIVEWIRE CALGARY
East Village wasn’t a sure thing
Druh Farrell, who served as councillor for Ward 7 from 2001 to 2021, pointed to the New Central Library as a metaphor for the East Village, called it very “difficult place to fit.”
“But it was that challenge that made us stretch further and and strive for excellence. I am very proud of that place,” Farrell said.
The original plans for the East Village were among the reasons why she ran for office, said Farrell, describing them as an an unachievable and strange plan.
“The city had entered an agreement to sell the city’s ownership of the East Village—they owned most of the properties—at a very low price with no mechanism, no financial mechanism to actually build it.”
“So it was a it was a very strange plan that had been approved by Council, and included a number of canals, and towers that were going to go right up against the river.”
That original plan was withdrawn by council after 2001.
“It took a huge amount of effort to be taken seriously, and for council to agree to look at this area,” Farrell said.
“So it was it was a baptism of fire as a new counsellor, but ultimately, it was worth it. I have no doubt that if we had continued with the previous agreement, that area would continue to languish, even today.”
David Wallach, President of Barclay Street Real Estate and founder of the Triumph REIF, described the East Village transformation as a blessing.
“I emigrated to Calgary 24 years ago, and East Village was a place that you didn’t go to after dark, and you didn’t go during the day, because there was nothing to do there,” he said.
“It’s a blessing that the city made the decision to take this jewel that we have between Inglewood and City Hall, on the river, and make it a strong, prominent neighbourhood.
“First of all it was a political decision, but then they realized this is how to do it right and help, but don’t stand in the way.”
