Marda Loop: At A Tipping Point

Marda Loop’s transformation into a mixed-use urban village began in the late ‘90s with Canada Lands’ (a self-financing, Crown corporation that specializes in real estate, development and attractions management) Garrison Woods development.

Marda Loop’s Main Street is a funky mix of old and new.

Even Marda Loop’s construction sites are fun.

Importance of family housing

This ambitious development included a  mix of different housing types (row housing, duplexes, singles and apartments) that appealed to parents with young families. At the same time, a new Safeway store and shops were added along 22nd Street SW planting the seed for Marda Loop to become an urban village. 

Today, Garrison Woods is home to 2,800 people, 21% being under 14 years of age and a median total household income of $164,828, significantly higher than the Calgary average of $97,329 (2016 Census of Canada, City of Calgary website).

Young families are critical to revitalizing older inner city communities like Marda Loop, as the parents are entering their high earning and spending years.  They can and will support grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, fitness centers and boutiques.  

Today, while 33rd Avenue SW continues to be Marda Loop’s pedestrian main street, 34th Ave SW  and 22ndStreet have also become more pedestrianized streets with new shops, restaurants, studios and services at street level and residential and office above.  

The first big residential project on 33rd Ave SW, completed in 2009 was the Treo building with the flagship Phil & Sebastian café and Shoppers Drug Mart at street level and residential above. Then seven years later, Ronmor completed Garrison Corner (the NW corner of 34th Ave SW and 22nd St) with its street level retail including Village Ice Cream and COBS Bread Bakery and offices above.  

In 2017, Ronmor’s Odeon building (corner of 20th St SW and 33rd Ave) designed by McKinley Burkhart was completed, with Blush Lane Organics at street level and 30,000 square feet of office above.  That same year, Avenue 33 by Sarina Homes, designed by FAAS architecture, with its main floor retail and 36 homes above at 33rd Ave SW at 19th St was also completed.  

Infinity was completed in 2018, at the corner of 19th St SW and 34th Ave with four more retailers at street level and 38 homes.  Then in early 2019, came the 154-home Lyfe building designed by Casola Koppe Architects on the west end of 33rd Ave SW.  Coming soon, Strategic Group’s six-story Marda building designed by NORR will be completed adding 66 new homes and more street retail at the corner of 34th Ave SW and 20th St.

RNDSQR just started construction of their very cool, six-storey Courtyard 33 building at the corner of 33rdAve SW and 22nd St, with its street and alley retail, along with 56 new homes. Designed by Winnipeg’s 5468796 Architecture, it will not only become Marda Loop’s signature building but also provide a link between 33rd and 34th Ave SW along the 22nd Street corridor.   

Rumour has it there is a deal in the works to develop the entire “Marda Loop Village” block on the southwest corner of 33rd Ave SW and 20th Street that will include a grocery store, more shops and services, as well as residential. 

The construction of the new Safeway next to the new Garrison Woods residential community was the catalyst for the urban renewal of Altadore and South Calgary.

Gradually the streets of Marda Loop are being populated with main floor retail and residential or offices above.

Treo is just one of several mixed use buildings along 33rd Avenue SW.

Every year Marda Loop is becoming more and more walkable.

Tipping Point

In total, from 2008 to 2018, 330 new residential units have been added along the 33rd and 34th Avenue SW corridors, as well as 172,000 square feet of new commercial space.  In addition, buildings that will accommodate 345 more homes and 32,000 more square feet of commercial space have been approved.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “tipping point” as the “critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect of change takes place.”  In the case of Marda Loop, the tipping point in its transformation from a sleepy 20th century residential-oriented suburb into an upscale mixed-use 21st century urban village is happening right now. 

One of the best measures of the how well a main street is doing these days, is by the number of cafes it has. I counted 6 in the Marda Loop core with five more nearby.  Another measure is the number of fitness/yoga studios; Marda Loop has four.  Both are indications Marda Loop has one if not two healthy main streets. 

However, a quick walkabout of Marda Loop will uncover that there are still several tired shopping plazas with surface parking out front that are ripe for redevelopment, as well as some vintage tiny houses waiting for the wrecker’s ball. 

Marda Loop remains a very fragmented pedestrian experience due to the lack of contiguous street-oriented commercial development along either 33rd and 34th Avenues.  However, that is being quickly address by projects currently under construction and proposed projects.  

WOW Bakery is one of Calgary’s top new restaurants.

Lyfe is just one of several recently completed residential developments that are replacing the tired small single family homes along 33rd Ave SW.

Marada Loop is home to many of Calgary home grown shops like Village Ice Cream.

Blush Lane organic grocery store anchors the new Odeon Building with office above.

And, there is more new development to come.

Marda Loop Business Association

In chatting with Bob van Wegen, Executive Director of the Marda Loop Business Improvement Association, it was interesting to learn that many of the new professional offices opening in the  ‘hood – lawyers, dentists etc – are locals. That is to say, after first living in one of the neighbouring communities, they decided re-locate their practice from elsewhere in the city to Marda Loop.   

Van Wegen also says Marda Loop’s 33rd Avenue SW is one of the City of Calgary’s 24 designated main streets, meaning the City will be investing in enhancing its public realm with new sidewalks, trees and street furniture.  The detailed design work is scheduled to be done in 2020 with $8 million committed for partial implementation commencing in 2021. 

Marda Loop Village site is ripe for redevelopment.

In the meantime the Village is a hub of small local merchants.

There is a fun block of colourful cottage homes along 34th Ave SW that have been converted into businesses.

Plaza 34 is also ripe for redevelopment

Another reason Marada Loop is thriving is that like the new community of Currie on the west side of Crowchild Trail families have access to 23 schools just a short distance away. Another blog?

LAST WORD

Marda Loop’s transformation is organic and random with many different developers and architects creating a hodgepodge of urban designs resulting in a more heterogenous urban aesthetic, rather than the homogenous curated (some might say “cookie cutter”) look of a master planned main street.

Marda Loop is more like a downtown, than a traditional linear main street, as it has numerous shops, services and offices surrounded by three residential neighbourhoods – Garrison Woods, Altadore, Richmond, Knob Hill and South Calgary. While 33rd Ave SW is its main street, there are several other clusters of shops - Garrison Corner, The Plaza 34, Cottage Village (several colourful cottage houses along 34th Ave with small businesses), as well as off-the-beaten path shops along 18th St SW from 34th to 36th Ave including the Marda Loop Brewing Company.

Marda Loop, with its mostly local businesses and shops scattered on different streets and avenues, has the feel of a Jane Jacobs’ village i.e. lots of independent shopkeepers, both old and new. Case in point - there is everything from the Professional Skate Goalie Centre store to the new Distilled Beauty Bar & Social House (coffee shop/bar/pedicure stations/massage rooms/hair salon/event space). And, let’s not forget, Marda Loop is home to the original “Original Joe’s.”

The late Jane Jacobs, a 1960s advocate for creating active streets and vibrant older , once said a healthy neighbourhood is one with a third of its buildings and businesses new, a third 10 to 20 years old and a third over 20 years old. Marda Loop fits that profile nicely.

Note: An edited version of this blog was published by the Calgary Herald in their New Condo section on February 1, 2020.

If you like this blog, you will like these links:

Currie: Calgary’s newest historic district

Altadore: An opportunity to create a model 21st Century inner city community.

Britannia’s 21st Century Transformation