By François Biber

Saskatoon tower would draw new downtown skyline

Nov 4, 2014 | 4:08 PM

Once built North Prairie Developments’ city centre tower will be the tallest skyscraper in Saskatoon.

“It’s the biggest project downtown since the Radisson and the twin towers and that was done in the early 1980s,” planning and development general manager Alan Wallace said.

The development slated for 22nd Street and Fourth Avenue includes three phases; two office and commercial buildings and a 290-unit condo building.

Phase one includes the existing office building at 116 and 130 Third Avenue South currently occupied by BHP Billiton. That building will be connected to phase two – a 30-storey 290 unit tower on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 22nd Street. Rising up 105 metres, the tower includes a six-storey parkade, ground-level shops, restaurants and public parking spaces.

Phase three consists of another office and commercial tower pegged at 87 metres tall.

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On Tuesday the City of Saskatoon’s municipal planning commission unanimously voted to approve the zoning request for the project – pushing the decision forward to city council.

In 2013, the city approved lifting height restrictions for downtown developments in exchange for additional public parking spaces and ground-level amenities for the public.

Wallace said the project surpasses the city’s downtown height restriction of 76 metres, and the developer will add public parking spaces and walkable shops on the ground floor of the condo and office buildings.

“The ground floor is actually going to be for shops and a restaurant,” Wallace said, adding North Prairie hasn’t publicly said who the tenants are, but they have a few in mind. “As long as you created that, we would let people build over the 76 metres.”

Right now North Prairie’s plan is to include 40 spots in the city centre tower parkade, plus another 15 public parking spaces in the Phase three development of the project. The city centre tower parkade will house 805 parking spaces.

“That’s the concept today and what (North Prairie Developments) is saying is until they get costs back that’s the estimate today it could be higher but that’s a net of 55 public parking spots because right now there’s no public parking available on the site so they’re not removing any,” Wallace said.

North Prairie will await city council’s decision later this year on whether or not the development is a go. If approved, construction could begin as early as 2015.

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