The City of Edmonton is facing a nearly $64-million shortfall from investments tied to its Quarters Downtown Community Revitalization Levy.
City council will hold a procedural vote on Tuesday to formalize the CRL into the city’s 2026 budget as uncertainty lingers in terms of how effective investments have been in attracting private developers to the area.
The CRL program allows the city to borrow against future property tax revenue to help fund infrastructure improvements in a particular area.
“What we’ve seen is that the uplift in the Quarters hasn’t been happening at the pace that was originally anticipated,” Ward O-day’min Coun. Anne Stevenson said in an interview with CBC News on Monday.
The Quarters Downtown CRL was approved by the Alberta government and came into effect in 2012 as noted in a city administration report presented to the city’s executive committee last month.
“The revenue projection for the Quarters CRL has decreased by $17.9 million from Q1 2025, to $92.8 million,” the report says.
“A shortfall of $63.6 million is projected over the 20-year CRL term. If the ongoing general municipal tax revenues collected within the Quarters CRL area after its expiry are dedicated to covering this shortfall, the shortfall would be repaid by 2041.”
The report says, to date, the CRL has funded $100 million in public infrastructure improvements for catalyst projects such as a pedestrian-oriented corridor on 96th Street, drainage servicing upgrades, the development of Kinistinâw Park and the conversion of city-owned buildings into new art spaces.
Kinistinâw Park in the Quarters neighbourhood in Edmonton. (Mrinali Anchan/CBC News)
The report notes investments have attracted more than $450 million of completed, in-progress and planned private developments. But based on the projected revenue shortfalls, no further capital projects can be started using CRL funding.
The city said the CRL is not intended to change the total amount of taxes collected in the area.
“The tax rates will be the same as for the rest of the city and will be based on the assessed market value of the property,” the city’s website states.
Stevenson said there has been a mismatch in terms of the timing of investments in the Quarters but that ultimately she believes they still have long-term value.
“What I come back to is that the investments that the city has made in public infrastructure, in terms of some of the sewers, some of the streetscapes, you know, none of that investment goes to waste,” she said.
“Those assets are still there. They’re still able to support future development.”
LISTEN | An Edmonton architect talks about what is keeping developers away from the Quarters:
Architect Gene Dub, who owns real estate development firm Five Oaks, has multiple projects being developed in the Quarters, including an affordable housing project called City Market Lofts, a student housing endeavour called The Hive and the GWG Building, which formerly hosted the Downtown Farmers’ Market.
In March, Dub told CBC’s current affairs show Edmonton AM that he believes there is untapped potential with the Quarters’ proximity to arts venues like the Royal Alberta Museum, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Winspear Centre and the Citadel Theatre.
“The potential of being next to that shouldn’t be lost, and it’s something no other part of the city can provide, and I’m worried about it being lost,” he said at the time.
Dub added that a concern for developers has been social issues which impact community members in the area.
“People don’t want to go into the Quarters because it’s become a dumping ground for social services and problematic housing, to the point where it’s become stigmatized there,” he said.
“These are necessary services. The concern is that so many of them are in one area.
“Seniors are afraid to walk down the street. Families with children avoid it for the same reason. Plus all the schools have closed, and it’s just discouraging. As a result, it ends up being parking lots.”
Concern about cultural erasure
“I think the premise, about a decade ago, must have been that, if you build it, they would come and that clearly wasn’t the case,” William Lau, vice-president of the Boyle Street Community League, said in an interview with CBC News.
Lau, who is also president of Chinatown Re:VITA, said concerns have been raised about cultural erasure in the district, and that some have expressed a desire to renew and preserve the area’s roots.
“[The city] brought in the Quarters plan and rescinded the Chinatown master plan without any community engagement,” Lau said. “And then with the teardown of the [Harbin] Gate in the recent decade, all those don’t feel good.”
Stevenson said she’s heard from the community about their concerns.
“At the time when the Quarters was being developed, there was a desire to reflect the multitude of histories that were in that space, including Indigenous history,” she said.
“I think certainly there are opportunities to strengthen the cultural identity of the neighbourhood. I know there’s a dire desire for us to rename the [Quarters] LRT stop to be the Chinatown South LRT station. I think those are great options and opportunities, and certainly something I’m more than more than willing to explore with the community.”
The Quarters LRT station in Edmonton. (Mrinali Anchan/CBC News)
Despite the challenges facing the neighbourhood, Lau said he is optimistic about its future.
“I think where my heart is, there’s a very vibrant community here,” he said.
“It might not look like it from the outside, but if you go into the buildings, whether it’s CO*LAB or the Mah Society or the Chinatown Multicultural Centre, there’s a lot of activity to leverage and build off of and I hope that the city engages deeply with those that are already in the space to look at how we can grow from there.”