Visionary dreams of urban soul for Calgary
David Parker For The Calgary Herald
Sunday, December 15, 2002
I enjoy talking to people who enjoy their work, so it was a very pleasant hour spent with Eileen Stan, who considers she has one of the best jobs in the city as executive director of the Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ). A good deal of her time is spent in planning for the future, an interest developed while studying architecture in the faculty of environmental design CREDIT: Dean Bicknell, Calgary Herald at the University of Calgary, which included a month's study in Rome. But it was in the communications field that Stan first chose to work, with Western Technology Seed Investment Fund. She spent a lot of her time with the fund in San Jose, Calif., helping to set up the companies in which it had invested.
Eileen Stan of Victoria Crossing Business Revitalization Zone seeks to create Calgary's leading urban environment.
It was an advertisement in the Calgary Herald five years ago that brought her back to her first love. She felt she had an understanding of the development potential for Victoria Park while preserving its urban character and convinced the board of the BRZ that she was the ideal candidate for the position she's held since then. Her jurisdiction covers a much different area and stakeholder group than most other BRZs in the city. Uptown 17th, Fourth Street, Marda Loop, Inglewood, Kensington and International Avenue are primarily strips that serve only a commercial membership. Victoria Crossing BRZ takes in all of the area between the railway tracks and 17th Avenue and from 6th Street S.E. to 2nd Street S.W., which encompasses lots of residences, as well. More than 5,500 people live in the district so, although the BRZ is a collaboration of fee-paying merchants and businesses who work together to promote and improve the community, Stan also has a representative of the community association on her board. Much has happened since she joined the BRZ in 1997. That was just prior to the announced redevelopment of what was named the Warehouse District, a plan by Qualico Developments to turn the old red brick buildings that sat along 10th and 11th Avenues between Macleod Trail and Olympic Way S.E. Its success says a lot about the interest generated in the area; the Louise Block is renovated, Critical Mass is in a gem of a building that was the former Pilkington warehouse, the Baradoy
Building was renovated into an eye-pleasing office block and Ribtor has converted its upper floors into some of the trendiest, and most desirable, office space you'll find. On top of Stan's wish list must be the sale of the historic Victoria school block across the road. The old sandstone building is leased to a private school but there have been a number of interested parties looking at converting the school into office use with mixed retail/residential developments surrounding it. It is a key property in that it borders 12th Avenue, the northern edge of the land that the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede wishes to develop. A good deal of Stan's time is spent with other stakeholder groups and she sits on the ad hoc Victoria Park Redevelopment Committee, which has had a lot of input into the Stampede's master plan and helped choose the developer for Stampede Station that will be built on the old Campeau lands. Her biggest capital expenditure to date was the preparation and part implementation of Steetscape Design Guidelines for Victoria Crossing. Scarth Street is the name on the banners that acknowledge the original name of 1st Street S.W., which has been upgraded with new sidewalks, curb articulations, trees and bollards, lighting and seating, as well as the pageantry. Stan is looking forward to extending the work all the way down to 17th Avenue, and also to the completion next spring of the work on the street's underpass into downtown -- the result of working together with the Calgary Downtown Association, the city and the CPR. As the representative of the BRZ, Stan recommended the recent changes of 2nd Street and 5th Street to two-way corridors and supports the proposed alteration to traffic flows on 11th and 12th Avenues, although the largest section of those is in the Connaught district and would probably mean an extension of 10th Avenue across 14th Street to make them work. The Connaught and Victoria Community Associations have joined forces with Don Schulz, downtown and inner city planner with the City of Calgary, to promote density, variety and quality in the beltline districts. Stan is heavily involved in this ongoing study. At her annual general meeting last week, she presented a study she had commissioned, a marketing strategy authored by Idea Machine. Stan felt there was a need to improve communications with current constituents and businesses as well as the numerous important organizations that can have a positive impact on the development of the Victoria Crossing community. Resources are limited so it is critical to market and promote in the right avenues. Budgets can be stretched and leveraged with members, landlords and other advocates to get maximum impact on a common goal of selling and leasing more space in the zone. Stan dreams of creating Calgary's leading urban environment and she's launching the new positioning with the slogan "Victoria Crossing is the Soul of Calgary." She is going to be very busy following through with the recommendations of the marketing strategy but she has the determination and energy.