'Don't screw it up!': How Calgary's University District came to thrive, a decade after Nenshi quip

Spend enough time at city council meetings or reading through the Homes section of the Calgary Herald, and the buzzwords used by developers start to blend together.

Walkable. Mixed-use. Urban village. Stakeholder consultation. Complete community.

These themes are repeated over and over as new developments are proposed and debated in this fast-growing city. Once approved, however, the end results don't always match the artists' renderings.

The whims of the housing, retail and office-space markets can get in the way of a multi-decade development plan, preventing visions from becoming reality. Sometimes opposition from neighbouring communities limits what can be done. Sometimes execution is simply lacking.

For University District — a major development on an expanse of land that sat vacant for decades, just west of the University of Calgary campus — expectations were set high from the get-go.

"This particular project will change the face of the city forever," then-mayor Naheed Nenshi said in 2014, when city council unanimously approved the project.

Then, speaking directly to the project's then-CEO James Robertson, Nenshi issued a light-hearted but sincere warning: "It is a remarkable opportunity. Don't screw it up!"

Fast-forward nearly a decade, and University District is living up to its billing.

How has it succeeded — so far, at least — where other developments have sometimes fallen short of expectations? Ask those who were directly involved in the project, who watched it closely from the outside, and who live there now. You'll hear some similar answers: meticulous planning, curated retail offerings, genuine walkability and some natural advantages to this particular parcel of land.

Oh, and building the dog park first.

From rendering to reality

University District is already home to about 2,000 people, with homes for another 1,000 residents under construction. It won the Best Growing Community Award from the Canadian Home Builders' Association last year. When all is said and done, the development is expected to house nearly 15,000 people.

The master plan also calls for 300,000 square feet of retail space, about 60 per cent of which is under construction or already in place, including a major grocery store.

The main street is home to a deliberately curated mix of shops and services, including full-service and grab-and-go restaurants, a pet store, a gym, a wine market, a bakery, a cannabis store, a hair salon, a daycare and a movie theatre — giving residents most of their daily needs within an easy walk.

"I think it's amazing how the plan has come to fruition," said urbanist Richard White, who has watched University District grow over the years and written numerous articles about the development.

White believes a key part of University District's success was its focus on developing a genuine high street, where residents can gather and have access to the amenities needed for daily life.

That can be a challenge for brand-new communities, given the inherent chicken-and-egg problem: you need people to attract the retail, and you need retail to attract the people.

White says University District overcame that challenge in two ways: by developing both residential and retail simultaneously in a compact area — and by maintaining control over the kinds of retail that go in.

99-year leases and curated retail

The structure of the development is unusual for Calgary, in that the university continues to own all the land, which is operated through University of Calgary Properties Group, its subsidiary corporation. Proceeds from the development will flow back to the university.

When you buy a home in University District, you don't buy the land it sits on. Rather, you buy into a 99-year leasehold.

And when retailers lease a storefront, they lease it from the subsidiary, which means it can pick and choose which retailers go where — and when.

Interim CEO Gregg Callander says that is a key mechanism for ensuring the actual development goes to plan.

"In order to build what we say we're going to build, we need to have control over that retail."

He said Stage 1 was getting the "initial amenities" in place — a grocery store, a coffee shop, a liquor store, a fitness centre and some fast-food options — "so residents didn't have to go out of the community."

"That enabled us to go into Stage 2 … with the theatre, the brewhouse and more yet to come. We just announced we're going to have Una Pizza coming in here, we're going to have Native Tongues (Taqueria) coming in here."

Callander credits his predecessor in the role, James Robertson, for attracting commercial interest and convincing prospective retail tenants to buy into the University District model early on. (Robertson, who had served as CEO since 2012, stepped down in March and is now overseeing the Taza development on Tsuut'ina Nation.)

White agrees, describing Robertson as a "very good negotiator."

"Really, there was just a great sales job to the retailers that this was going to happen and you needed to get in and be part of it," he said.

Having the U of C campus and the Alberta Children's Hospital nearby also helps, and this is reflected in the nature of the retailers that have chosen to move in — including a 24-hour McDonald's for late-night eats and Bottoms Up Scrubs, which specializes in clothing for health-care workers.

Still, White says he was "astounded" that University District managed to land a grocery store so early on in its development — the Save-On-Foods opened in August 2020, when not many people were yet living in the community — and he was impressed by its design.

"It's integrated. It's on the street. It's part of a residential development. It's not a big suburban type grocery store stuck in the middle. It's lovely."

It was also a big part of the reason Jaydee Sendin decided to move to University District.

Genuinely walkable

Sendin is a software developer who had been living in Winnipeg with his wife, but they decided to move to Calgary a year ago when she received a fellowship in cardiology at the Foothills Hospital.

Sendin's brother was already living in University District and highly recommended the community to them. When they took a look at the area, they were immediately sold.

"Having the grocery and restaurants nearby, it's like perfect, especially with my wife's busy schedule," Sendin said.

Another important feature, he said, was the community's dog park, which he regularly walks to with his golden retriever.

That's how he said he gets around to most things in his daily life: "Just walking."

When he needs something that's not available in the community itself, Sendin said he goes to the nearby Market Mall (located kitty-corner to University District on the northwest side) or rides transit buses downtown.

He and his wife are renting their home for now but are considering staying for the long term.

If they do decide to buy, however, they will have to pay a pretty penny to live in the area.

Pricey condos

One thing University District doesn't have, at least not yet, is a diversity of housing options.

Low-rise condos and townhomes make up the majority of what's available and, for the size of the units, they go for a fair bit more than you'd pay in other parts of the city.

One-bedroom units between 400 and 500 square feet are listed in the $330,000 to $390,000 range.

Asking prices for 800-square-foot, two-bedroom units are currently $550,000 to $600,000.

White noted real estate tends to be more expensive in the northwest part of the city but, even then, the University District condos are "very pricey."

He noted the project has received no government funding to support the development of affordable housing and, especially in its initial stages, needed to focus on housing that would "generate revenue quickly."

"And so they had to go with basically what's going to sell," White said.

Callander acknowledges the current housing mix isn't for everyone, but he notes the community does include supported seniors living through the Brenda Strafford Foundation and says more affordable units are in the works for the later stages of the residential build-out.

Next steps

So far, construction has been limited to the northern portion of the more than 80 hectares that make up the University District land.

Longer-term plans include development of the area south of the Alberta Children's Hospital.

Some office space is also built and occupied along the main street, but much more is in the plans, which include up to 1.5 million square feet, in total.

"Given the Calgary office market, we're not in a hurry to get there yet," Callander said. "But we've done quite well on the buildings we do have with our office [leasing]."

Public amenities — for local residents and visitors alike — are also in place, including an accessible playground and an outdoor plaza that includes a skating rink in the winter, a splash pad in the summer and outdoor fire features to gather around throughout the year.

"At a conference the other day … people from the City of Calgary were saying you're the first builder in this city to actually build what you said you were going to build," Callander said.

"Like, our original renderings actually reflect what you're seeing today.… So that has been our successes. We have built and stuck by the story from Day 1."

And, of course, there's the dog park.

It may seem like a small thing, in the grand scheme of a project of this size, but White says details like that shouldn't be underestimated when it comes to taking a development dream to a living reality.

"I always think the dog park should come first, because people use the dog park two or three times day," he said.

"And they built the dog park first."