Company says Calgary too cost-prohibitive

Calgary city council voted Monday 14-1 in favour of new ride-sharing regulations that will require more rigorous licensing, background checks and inspections.

Yet U.S.-based Uber said the model is cost prohibitive and that the draft bylaw will run the company out of Calgary.

"It's a really unfortunate day for riders and drivers in Calgary," Ramit Kar, Uber's general manager for Alberta, told reporters. "For riders, there's no longer going to be an option that they've been asking for to get transported around the city."

In a statement on Twitter Monday night, the company added that, "it's unfortunate to see #yyccc vote for regulations that prevent the return of ridesharing to Calgary. "We'll continue to advocate for solutions that create jobs for drivers & affordable transportation options for the public. "

Homeowners to benefit from redevelopment, says company behind initiative

An ambitious multi-year plan to breathe new life into Deerfoot Mall in north Calgary stands to benefit nearby homeowners in a big way, says the company behind the massive redevelopment.

In early 2016, Vancouver-based Shape Properties announced it would be transforming the decades-old property at Deerfoot Trail and 64th Avenue N.E. from a traditional closed mall into a state-of-the-art open shopping centre dubbed Deerfoot City, complete with everything from a restaurant campus to style district.

"For local property owners, Deerfoot City is nothing but a good story," said Shape Properties executive vice-president Darren Kwiatkowski, whose company purchased the site from Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2011 for a reported $78 million.

Home + Garden Show returns to Stampede grounds Feb. 25-28

Change your world, one cabbage at a time: That's how Calgary gardening guru Donna Balzer wants to inspire folks at this year's Calgary Home + Garden Show, which runs Feb. 25 to 28.

"I'll help people understand why it's so important for us to take control of our own food," said Balzer, a CREB®Now regular columnist who will be among dozens of featured presenters at the four-day event, which is expected to attract more than 60,000 visitors this year.

"I want people to realize they can have an impact and help them discover how they can do it."

Office market to face increased vacancy, lower lease rates

Calgary's downtown office market struggled in 2015 and is expected to face challenges in 2016 due to prevalently weak economic conditions in the province's oil patch, says a new report.

Commercial real estate firm Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. reported the downtown office market finished the year with a vacancy rate of 17.29 per cent, up 2.23 per cent from the third quarter.

Vacancy was at a record high of seven million square feet at the end of 2015.

By the numbers

Canada's central bank carries out monetary policy by influencing short-term interest rates. It does this by raising and lowering the target for the overnight rate, which is the interest rate at which major financial institutions borrow and lend one-day (or "overnight") funds among themselves. Not surprisingly, the overnight rate has a strong impact on the rates Canadians get from their lending institutions when they save or borrow money.

To help the average Canadian get a better grasp on the overnight lending rate, CREB®Now presents some of the key numbers.

By the numbers

With much of the news coming out of Calgary's commercial market negative, especially for many of those that once toiled away in one of the city's many office towers, the future of downtown Calgary is, in many ways, up in the air. Adding to the uncertainty are several new office towers set to be added to downtown Calgary in the coming months. CREB®Now looks at some of the numbers coming out of Calgary's evolving skyline.

16%
Inversely tied to the declining price of oil, the vacancy rate in Calgary's office market has increased from around six per cent in 2014 to a once unfathomable 18 per cent in 2016, according to commercial real estate firm Colliers International.

A cloud of uncertainty hangs over top of Calgary's housing market in 2016. To help anxious buyers and sellers, here are a few key numbers from CREB®'s 2016 Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast that will shed some light on what's to come.

18,416
After posting 25,543 sales in 2014 and 18,830 in 2015, CREB® is predicting Calgary's resale housing market to decline slightly in 2016 to 18,416 – below the 10-year average. Sales are expected to be down 2.5 per cent in the detached sector, 1.5 per cent in attached and two per cent in apartments. According to CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie, the beginning of the year will find Calgary in a buyer's market.

Feedback to follow homes' demolition

More than a dozen homes in Elbow Park that were damaged in the 2013 floods are now slated for demolition, prompting Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to seek feedback from area residents on their vision for the community's long-term recovery.

Community members will have the opportunity to meet with the minister and mayor in January to help determine the short-term use of the properties sold to the province as part of the floodway relocation program.

Gravel-trained dogs are not a theory

After being pulled off my feet and dragged two metres, I was winded and dazed with a broken rib and scrapes on my knees. A stranger tried to help me up, but my dog, still tied firmly to my waist, was barking in my defence against the obedient pair of shelties sitting quietly beside their helpful owner.

I lay on the ground sore and sad and embarrassed.

The host of the dog obedience television show I watched before attaching the leash around my waist forgot to mention you should get to know your dog first before you tie him to your waist. Later, my hairdresser, Heather, confirmed the same thing. The leash-on-waist thing is all lies, especially with a big or bad dog.

When we agreed to take a "free" rescue dog, we were thinking about the house. After all, poodles don't shed. There would be no more hairy dust-balls on the hardwood.

Lanark to house nearly 3,300 residents

Airdrie has approved the first phase of a neighbourhood structure plan in the city's southeast that will be the future home for nearly 3,300 residents.

Dubbed Lanark, the lake community will be located on a 66-hectare parcel of land south of Ravenswood and east of King's Heights and feature more than 1,200 units.

Developer Melcor Development envisions Lanark becoming Airdrie's first fresh-water lake community.