Construction going full steam ahead in Blatchford: city

Progress is being made on construction in Blatchford, Edmonton's renewable energy-powered neighbourhood. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg reports.

Despite construction delays, Edmonton’s renewable energy-powered neighbourhood is trucking along on the site of the former city centre airport.

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Tom Lumsden, the development manager for the Blatchford Redevelopment Project, said the community is receiving a lot of interest.

“The talk has been that it’s not going as fast as people think it should be going, but there’s people living here,” Lumsden told CTV News Edmonton Wednesday. “We have 300 homes either constructed or under construction (with) another 200-ish coming on right away.”

Today, most of the homes in Blatchford are townhouses, but apartment buildings and condos will be added to the development along with retail spaces.

Mixed-use buildings known as the “Blatchford Market” will be built near the new NAIT LRT stop while the main floor of the decommissioned airport control tower will be turned into a public space.

Emily Taylor moved into Blatchford about a year ago.

“I didn’t know what exactly to expect when I moved here, obviously it’s still growing,” said Taylor. “Even in the year I’ve been here, there’s been a huge number of new developments that have gone up.

“It’s a really nice community.”

Taylor said the quiet neighbourhood is designed for walking and biking – which is perfect as the LRT station is close by.

“It’s just really convenient,” said Taylor.

There are communal gardens and playgrounds in the community as well as walking and cycling trails.

City council approved a business case to transform the decommissioned Edmonton Municipal Airport into an urban infill community in 2014.

Once completed, Blatchford will be home to up to 30,000 Edmontonians. The community uses 100 per cent renewable energy and is carbon-neutral.

But there’s still plenty of construction to do until the development is fully realized – the projected date of completion is sometime in 2042.

“We still think we can achieve that,” said Lumsden. “Things are working the way we think they should.”