East Village road proceeds with developer's deposit

A section of Calgary's East Village is finally getting a permanent road after nearly a year of construction because a developer has agreed to forgo its security deposit to get the work done.

Third Street S.E., directly south of Riverfront, was torn up during construction work and reopened three weeks ago as a temporary gravel road.

The block had been closed since September for construction, causing a restaurant and a dog daycare to complain of thousands of dollars in lost business.

City officials and business owners didn't know when a permanent road would go in because it was the developer's responsibility.

Unusual move

Joel Armitage, the manager for Calgary's urban development division, said Pointe of View Developments finally asked the city to lay down the permanent road using money from a security deposit that the developer had handed over in case it couldn't complete work it promised to do.

"Typically what happens is if there's ever a security pulled, there's been a default, and then the city would be the ones pulling the security and doing the work either because the developer doesn't exist anymore or has gone bankrupt, something like that," he said.

"It's a rare situation to have the developer come and say 'We're not going to be able to fill this obligation and we'd like you to pull our security.'"

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, a City of Calgary subsidiary tasked with implementing East Village revitalization, will now pave the road by the end of summer.

"Right now [the city's] forces are stretched and I've got equipment and crews in the area, so we'd be able to do it fairly economically and cheaply and be able to tie it up," president Chris Ollenberger said. "It's good for the neighbourhood."

Ollenberger said the job will cost about $350,000 and be covered in full by the security.

Officials at Pointe of View Developments couldn't be reached for comment.