A new retail complex is being launched on the Gateway to Edmonton with multiple national tenants planning to take up shop in EVER Square, a seven building development.
The site, being developed by EVER Real Estate Developments, will be located on Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard, just north of Whitemud Drive and will be the future home of national franchises, local wellness providers and professional firms in the real estate industry.
“Our objective is to build a destination for Edmontonians. Whether you’re visiting the site as an employee, wellness patient, or restaurant patron, you’re first taking advantage of the convenience, and then the additional amenities on site. The business mix is therefore very important, and our team is working to bring unique, first-rate companies to EVER Square,” said Sam Narayan, Partner and President.
The development consists of a six-storey professional office tower with underground parking, four national drive-thrus, a lube service station, and single-story retail building. Construction is currently underway for the approximately 110,000-square-foot site and is anticipated to reach substantial completion in Q3 2024.
“We acquire land and primarily build retail and multi-family assets in the city and surrounding areas. Over the last 10 years we’ve done over 12 or 13 projects and over the last two years since launching the new company, we’ve really now stepped it up because we’re comfortable with our projects. The latest one is EVER Square. Outside of that, currently we have one that’s called EVER @ Ellersie where we’re building approximately 23,000 square feet. Again, medical oriented. We have one going on the west side of Edmonton called EVER on 170. We have one closer to here on 51st Avenue called EVER on 97 and now we’re getting into our multi-family development which is called EVER Living. That will be coming onboard towards the end of the year.”
Tenants at EVER Square will include:
- Fillmore Construction
- Great Canadian Oil Change (Valvoline)
- EVER Square Medical & Pharmasave
- Stacked Pancake House
- Oodle Noodle
- Osmow’s Shawarma
- RE/MAX Excellence Commercial Division
- EVER Real Estate Developments
“This land we acquired two years ago from the group of individuals who had it for about two decades. They did have some significant plans on it but over time they decided to sell and we were able to acquire it,” said Narayan.
“We went through rezoning to make sure it fits our needs. We’re building seven buildings at the site. One is a five-storey building with a rooftop patio. The rooftop patio came from a lot of the office tenants that we have who are looking for amenities for their staff. We do have underground parking of 127 stalls. Surrounding that we’ve got drive-thru’s and retail CRU base.”
He said site servicing on the site has been completed and they are in the process of building the parkade which is well underway and expected to be completed over the next 30 to 45 days and then the vertical component of the building will come. By August of this year, the entire buildings should be up and Q2 of next year is when it is being projected to be turned over to tenants.
“Our team has experience working on a project right across the street called South Trail Plaza which was 60,000 square feet and demand was pretty significant. There were a lot of tenants in here which we couldn’t accommodate. That gave us the idea to explore this site – a vacant site that really is sitting in the middle of Edmonton, 15 minutes away from the airport, eight minutes from downtown and 15 minutes away from West Edmonton Mall,” said Narayan.
“So the site looked very good and when we did our due diligence, took it to the market to understand, what we found is a lot of the tenants wanted to be here – not only be here but to open their flagship location. So we have office tenants that are moving locations and coming to this site in order to be at a location that becomes flagship.
“We have retail tenants who are putting their first location in Edmonton because of this site because this is really the Gateway to Edmonton when you’re coming in from Calgary this is the gateway and they all want to put their sign on the street. And when we found that, that’s what made this project viable and we decided to move forward and today we actually have more tenants than we can put in.”
Narayan said the office market remains tough in Edmonton’s core. But all the office space in the EVER Square development is spoken for.
As for the economy, he said the company is bullish on the Edmonton market.
“The economy today is tight. It is certainly a lot of work to put it together but we’re a company that is in this long-term. We’re not a company that builds and sells assets. We build and retain and we’ll be retaining this for the next generation. So we’re bullish.”
