Ward O-day'min Coun. Anne Stevenson says Blatchford hit several milestones in 2024, a year she previously told Taproot would be an "inflection point" to judge the project's success. The milestones include the opening of the NAIT/Blatchford Market LRT station, and lower prices now on offer to buyers thanks to the neighbourhood's first multi-family housing development.
"We're seeing new units continue to be built, and continue to be built at a lower price point," Stevenson told Taproot. "A big milestone was finally having a connection to the LRT. That's really opening up the transportation opportunities."
Ever since council approved a vision to lead an energy-focused redevelopment of Edmonton's former city airport in 2010, the project has drawn both praise and criticism. In April, Mayor Amarjeet Sohi suggested Blatchford is "not a huge success" during an audit presented to council, which detailed that just 84 homes were occupied at Blatchford.
The city has marked 2042 as when it expects Blatchford to house 30,000 residents within its 536 acres. To date, the city has invested at least $167 million, though Coun. Tim Cartmell has suggested the amount is $232 million.
Stevenson said Blatchford hit some benchmarks in 2024, pointing to the first multi-family development with three-storey townhomes by StreetSide, a company within the Qualico portfolio. Those homes go for as little as $369,998. Stevenson said this provides more accessible prices than were previously available in Blatchford. In 2022, reports noted the average townhouse price at Blatchford was $650,000, or around $200,000 more than the city-wide average for a home in 2022.
Stevenson also pointed to a Nov. 7 memo to council from Tom Lumsden, development manager for Blatchford. Lumsden's memo lists a combined 401 housing units either completed or being built at Blatchford, including 143 garage suites and secondary suites that are under construction or in the planning stage, since the city approved the Blatchford business case in 2014.
The original plan was to build 2,750 homes by 2022.
"At a high level, approximately 42% of the Blatchford site is either constructed, under construction, or in the planning-development stage," Stevenson said. "Thirty-three acres of land sold to NAIT, on the east side, have been substantially serviced. So it's now up to NAIT to build that out."
The land NAIT acquired will likely house its Advanced Skills Centre, a facility that is in the design phase, and student housing.
Lumsden's memo said Blatchford is growing at "a pace typical of other neighbourhoods in Edmonton — even though Blatchford is not a typical neighbourhood" and that a third-party report from late 2023 "found that the current pace of development was reasonable, with market acceptance improving."
Blatchford's path to 30,000 residents across 536 acres by 2042 saw deals made in 2024 that boost Coun. Anne Stevenson's confidence in the city-planned neighbourhood. (Supplied)
Stevenson is aware of the critiques of Blatchford's pace and cost, including from her fellow councillors. She said these may have made progress even harder.
"One of the biggest risks that Blatchford has faced is political risk, and some of the discourse that's happened on council, I think, hasn't been helpful in promoting Blatchford," she said. "I think it's very easy to create self-fulfilling prophecies, and the more we talk about the failure, the lack of success at Blatchford, the less likely you are to spur investor confidence in those areas."
More contextual numbers from Lumsden's memo include that part of the city's federal grant of $175 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund will be used in Blatchford; that 994 more units are planned for land that has been sold, is pending sale, or has active builder interest; and that Blatchford has earned $95.7 million in revenue against a $95.1 million operating budget as of the end of 2023.
More plans are underway for Blatchford as well. Two sites have been earmarked for affordable housing, and further infrastructure such as bike lanes and parks are on the agenda.
Stevenson highlighted that the torn-up runway near amiskwaciy Academy, at 101 Airport Road NW, will increase amenities for the community. "That's going to lead to the installation of a new park and get a school site ready, that will be available," she said.
Stevenson also told Taproot she will run as the incumbent for her ward in this year's municipal election. Speaking Municipally co-host Troy Pavlek recently described her candidacy as "vulnerable" because she received slightly more than one quarter of the vote in the last election. Former NAIOP Edmonton CEO, Anand Pye, who is registered as running in October, could challenge her for the seat given his ongoing connection to the downtown conversation.
Stevenson said she's hopeful Blatchford won't be a major election debate, even if she could be running against someone with expertise in development. She thinks administration's November update could challenge the idea that things aren't going well.
"This memo that we received with the data, with the numbers, has really silenced some of the naysayers," she said. "The data truly does speak for itself at this point, not that we can't continue to push for improvements, not that we can't continue to push to see greater acceleration, but the fundamentals are there."