StreetSide Developments builds out new possibilities

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StreetSide Developments isn’t resting on its laurels.

Even after being named greater Edmonton’s Multi-Family Builder of the Year for the second year in a row, and walking away with the most awards at the recent Awards of Excellence in Housing gala — again for the second straight year — StreetSide is looking at new opportunities, expanding into the single family home market, and has plans for innovative infills.

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“We’re in 28 communities,” said Nicholas Carels, StreetSide’s vice-president about how it’s moving forward. “At any given time we’ll have 700 or 800 homes under construction.”

StreetSide, which won 13 awards at this year’s mid-March event, the first under the BILD Edmonton Metro banner (as the Canadian Home Builders’ Association-Edmonton Region and the Urban Development Institute-Edmonton Region merged in mid-2024) won Best New Multi-Family Rental Project for the Switch, a downtown rental highrise with 285 units and a Nordic-themed fitness centre. It also won for Best Multi-Family – Apartment Style under $250,000; Best Multi-Family – Townhouse/Duplex Style $350,000 to $400,000, and $400,000 to $450,000; Best Single Family $400,000 to $450,000; took the Best Design Centre/Show Room award, Recognition for Most Home Sales, and five other sales related awards.

“Our team makes a pretty big to-do of the awards,” said Carels. “It’s kind of like a second Christmas party almost for our team. We have a little gathering at one of the show homes that’s nominated for an award before we go down there together as a group. We’re very excited, of course humbled, and just honoured, really.”

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Going into the awards, StreetSide knew it would walk out with at least one trophy as it was the only one competing in the Best Multi-Family Apartment Style under $250,000 — it had the only two finalists. It was its Urban Flats product, designed to replace a typical apartment offering but bears a resemblance to a three-storey walk-up style. Its Mysig in West Secord won; StreetSide is offering that for sale in West Secord and Desrochers Villages.

But while Carels said StreetSide is humbled by the wins, he emphasized that it’s the cities and municipalities in the Edmonton region that have allowed it to do what it does.

“A lot of the homes we won awards for — a number of years ago — wouldn’t have fit in the allowable land use bylaws, the types of homes we could have built,” said Carels, adding that they’ve worked with developer partners, administrative staff and elected officials to get new forms of housing approved. “For these different cities that we’re working in, they play a big part of making it, too. If they only allow us to build traditional sized products, we couldn’t get to this price point, to these award categories and we couldn’t get to that sales volume. The leaders in the Edmonton region are quite accessible, open minded and forward thinking and that allows us to create the homes people want to buy.”

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An example of that, said Carels, is their townhomes that are now 12 feet or 14 feet wide as compared to the traditional 18-foot wide townhome, previously the smallest allowed under older land use bylaws.

“Our top sellers have been 14- and 12-foot wide products. They allow us to get to a better price point,” said Carels. “They’re sized for today’s market. It allows us to focus some of the investment in the home more so on the finishes inside, which we’re finding a lot of people prefer.”

Coming Soon

Continuing with townhomes, StreetSide will introduce a new line that will see townhomes priced well under $300,000 — lower than their current product. Those will be built in Blackmud Creek, Marquis, Rivers Edge and the Uplands at Riverview.

Communities outside of Edmonton such as Devon and Fort Saskatchewan will see increased options from StreetSide, while downtown Edmonton will get a second, larger rental tower to complement the award-winning Switch when Phase 2 of that development comes online. The new tower will share some amenities as the Station Lands project expands. But Carels said it’s too early to provide exact details.

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StreetSide is also looking at bringing on infill projects in Glenora and Inglewood, with the 19-unit Glenora project designed to properly fit into the mature residential neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, StreetSide, which is known for its multi-family focus, is expanding into the single-family home segment. It’s bringing its Broadview home building banner, which exists in Calgary and Winnipeg from StreetSide’s parent Qualico, to Edmonton.

“The reason we picked that brand is really the name, taking a broader view of how homes are being built,” said Carels. “We’ll be coming out with some unique products that we think will stand out in terms of other offerings in the single-family world.”

Broadview homes can be found in Aster, Kinglet, The Uplands at Riverview and soon in Fort Saskatchewan.

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