New Edmonton Construction - Page 2

itom 987 · October 15th, 2005, 10:22 PM

^ I completely agree!

cmd uw · October 16th, 2005, 08:08 PM

Another airline prepares to serve YEG.

Delta to fly international from SLC
New plan: The airline will make flights to other countries part of its debt recovery because they are more profitable
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune

Delta Air Lines will announce new non-stop service from Salt Lake City to Edmonton, Alberta, next week and may pick up service to Mexico City dropped by AeroMexico when it abruptly pulled out of Salt Lake last month.

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3120429

coldrsx · October 17th, 2005, 05:39 PM

^good to see...SLC is a money maker.

walli · October 17th, 2005, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tri-City Guy

I don't think Edmonton's International Airport is that far out. Too expensive to take a cab maybe but the shuttle is pretty standard in cost if I recall.

Here's a map showing Edmonton and "its" airport. The airport is the grey block West of the town of Nisku near the bottom of the map:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=edmonto...1.210693&hl=en

Here's a map showing Calgary and its airport. The airport is well within Calgary city limits - the grey block by the highway 2 icon. Calgary downtown is at where the text "Calgary" is:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=calgary...1.210693&hl=en

NOTE - both maps have the same scale. Edmonton's airport looks to be about 6 times further from Edmonton downtown than Calgary's airport is to its downtown.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tri-City Guy

Edmonton needs to get all excited and develope a serious stiffy complex. A nice 50 story would be good enough and litter the core with flats galore w/a Chapters downtown of course - couldn't survivie without one of those.

What would Edmonton do with a 50 story tower? Homeless shelter perhaps, or maybe the worlds largest mall in a tower

Okay, I'm just kidding.

Calgary's largest tenants are banks and energy companies. World HQ for EnCana [most profitable company in Canada], PetroCanada, TransCanada Pipelines, etcetera. Canadian HQ for Imperial/Esso, etcetera. Western Canadian HQ for Royal Bank, CIBC, Bank of Montreal, TD. Who are the Edmonton heavywieghts realtive to these, that might be able to sustain a REAL project?

cmd uw · October 17th, 2005, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walli

What would Edmonton do with a 50 story tower? Homeless shelter perhaps, or maybe the worlds largest mall in a tower

Okay, I'm just kidding.

Calgary's largest tenants are banks and energy companies. World HQ for EnCana [most profitable company in Canada], PetroCanada, TransCanada Pipelines, etcetera. Canadian HQ for Imperial/Esso, etcetera. Western Canadian HQ for Royal Bank, CIBC, Bank of Montreal, TD. Who are the Edmonton heavywieghts realtive to these, that might be able to sustain a REAL project?

Canadian Western Bank, EPCOR, Stantec Consulting, PCL Construction, Bioware, Matrikon, etc.....there are quite a few.

Calgary's office market is primarily driven by the oil and gas sector.

walli · October 18th, 2005, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmd uw

Canadian Western Bank, EPCOR, Stantec Consulting, PCL Construction, Bioware, Matrikon, etc.....there are quite a few.

Most of those are mom & pop operations. In contrast, just EnCana is worth maybe $50 Billion with 2004 net earnings of $3.5 Billion. That's what it takes to build a 2M sqft building complex. You can't expect Bioware, with its 245 employees to compete against that? Or perhaps Canadian Western Bank, with all of its 29 branches?

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmd uw

Calgary's office market is primarily driven by the oil and gas sector.

Calgary's current top ten list is as follows:

1 Petro-Canada Centre - West - ENERGY
2 Bankers Hall - West - BANK (Royal Bank)
3 Bankers Hall - East - BANK (CIBC)
4 Calgary Tower - TOURISM
5 Canterra Tower - ENERGY
6 TransCanada Tower - ENERGY
7 First Canadian Centre - BANK (Bank of Montreal)
8 Western Canadian Place - ENERGY
9 TD Canada Trust Tower - (TD)
10 Scotia Centre - BANK (Scotia Bank)

Now, CLEARLY, the fact that five of the top ten are bank buildings supports my prior post. Calgary's tall buildings are not all oil and gas related.

ssiguy2 · October 18th, 2005, 06:35 PM

I tend to agree with Walli.
Edmonton and Calgary are both reliant on oil as their big economic engines but Calgary's is more the white collar end of it resulting in the need for more office space.

Look at Vancouver. It is a decidedly branch plant city compared to other major cities and although there are a lot of buildings downtown most are residential or hotels.

You don't build what you can't fill.

walli · October 18th, 2005, 06:41 PM

Calgary top fifteen buildings total 8082 feet [average of five hundred thirty plus]
Edmonton top fifteen buildings total 5832 feet [average of three hundred some]

Edmonton's tallest building wouldn't even break Calgary's top ten!
Edmonton's 5th tallest would make Calgary's top 25 by one foot!

ssiguy2 · October 18th, 2005, 06:57 PM

Thats a pretty insulting comment. There is no reason for that.

Remember I just mentioned Vancouver? Well if you think Edmonton is bad look at this. I did some research and found that Vancouver doesn't have one , I repeat that, doesn't have one company publically traded headquarters listed in the top 35 in 2004 by revenue. Now that's beyond pathetic.
You think Edmonton is bad?

***Rhino*** · October 18th, 2005, 07:02 PM

now , now , Calgary is still the wild west , Where the city sometimes feels more like Montana ,then Canada , no offence. Just an idea from a fur trader .

cmd uw · October 18th, 2005, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walli

Most of those are mom & pop operations. In contrast, just EnCana is worth maybe $50 Billion with 2004 net earnings of $3.5 Billion. That's what it takes to build a 2M sqft building complex. You can't expect Bioware, with its 245 employees to compete against that? Or perhaps Canadian Western Bank, with all of its 29 branches?

My point was that Edmonton does have a fair number of companies that have started to gain some momentum and have become larger players.

Using Encana is a poor comparison as there are very few Canadian companies that can compete.

Quote:

Calgary's current top ten list is as follows:

1 Petro-Canada Centre - West - ENERGY
2 Bankers Hall - West - BANK (Royal Bank)
3 Bankers Hall - East - BANK (CIBC)
4 Calgary Tower - TOURISM
5 Canterra Tower - ENERGY
6 TransCanada Tower - ENERGY
7 First Canadian Centre - BANK (Bank of Montreal)
8 Western Canadian Place - ENERGY
9 TD Canada Trust Tower - (TD)
10 Scotia Centre - BANK (Scotia Bank)

Now, CLEARLY, the fact that five of the top ten are bank buildings supports my prior post. Calgary's tall buildings are not all oil and gas related.

You do realize that these building are only named after the company that purchased the naming rights and does not necessarily mean it is a major tenant.

Read any office market report and it will clearly state the the office market is primarily driven by the Oil & Gas sector. Just take a look and see where the demand for space is coming from.

http://www.avisonyoung.com/library/p...e_Review_1.pdf

http://www.colliersmn.com/prod/cclod...erspective.pdf

cmd uw · October 18th, 2005, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walli

Calgary top fifteen buildings total 8082 feet [average of five hundred thirty plus]
Edmonton top fifteen buildings total 5832 feet [average of three hundred some]

Edmonton's tallest building wouldn't even break Calgary's top ten!
Edmonton's 5th tallest would make Calgary's top 25 by one foot!

That's b/c we have an airport 1 mile NW of downtown and there are height restrictions. This is also why our skyline looks like it has a brushcut.

coldrsx · October 19th, 2005, 05:08 PM

comparing edm and cal is like comparing NY and boston IMO...both are amazing cities in their own right, but to compare them on anything other than baseball (hockey) is ridiculous

walli · October 19th, 2005, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coldrsx

comparing edm and cal is like comparing NY and boston IMO...both are amazing cities in their own right, but to compare them on anything other than baseball (hockey) is ridiculous

Maybe NY and Buffalo.

cmd uw · October 19th, 2005, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walli

Maybe NY and Buffalo.

Hahaha....

More like Denver and Minneapolis

coldrsx · October 19th, 2005, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by walli

Maybe NY and Buffalo.

oh come on....calgary is a slight step up from buffalo.

walli · October 19th, 2005, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coldrsx

oh come on....calgary is a slight step up from buffalo.

Its all relative I guess. I didn't mean NY NY, but rather Columbus NY, as representative of Edmonton.

cmd uw · October 21st, 2005, 05:42 PM

Oilfield construction giant moves north where the action is
Willbros Canada HQ leaves Calgary, opens new plant in Edmonton

Gordon Jaremko
The Edmonton Journal

Friday, October 21, 2005

EDMONTON - Edmonton is now an oil capital in the eyes of a 97-year-old global pipeline and oilfield construction chain about to add a big Alberta link.

"The centre has moved north," Willbros MSI Canada Inc. president Ralph Hesje said as his firm put finishing touches on a new 130,000-square-foot head office and plant in south Edmonton for a ribbon-cutting Nov. 1 ceremony starring Mayor Stephen Mandel.

"The mayor likes to say Edmonton is the gateway to the North -- and in fact it really is," Hesje said in an interview.

An ex-Calgarian, he is moving the Canadian headquarters of Willbros to Edmonton from Calgary after obtaining oilsands project orders expected to fuel sustained corporate and employment growth. "Our operations were in Fort McMurray. Our clients were in Calgary. You have to be close to your clients. But you also have to be close to what's going on in the field," he said.

A "significant presence" will be retained among Calgary office towers of oilsands project owners, he added. But Hesje will live in the field, where he predicts the action will stay hot for years to come. He and wife Carol have moved to Fort McMurray.

The Edmonton event will celebrate re-entry into Canada by an old oil household name akin to Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes. Willbros employs up to 4,750 employees in an international network based in Houston and Panama City. Founded in 1908, it has built more than 200,000 kilometres of pipelines in 50 countries and expanded into an array of construction specialties from engineering and project management to fabricating offshore installations in "modular" pieces.

After building big sections of the Canadian oil and gas pipeline grid during the Alberta industry's first growth era following the 1947 Leduc discovery, Willbros pulled out as the action tapered off.

The firm started its return by doing a 2001 takeover of Calgary-based MSI Energy Services, a private specialist in pipeline maintenance inside oilsands complexes.

Canadian operations have since grown about six-fold from initial annual revenues in the range of $10-$15 million, Hesje said.

The new Edmonton plant is a bright spot in the Willbros network. Elsewhere the firm has warned investors its 2002, '03 and '04 earnings will be restated at reduced levels following an investigation into alleged misconduct by a dismissed former executive in Nigeria, Bolivia and Ecuador.

"You feel a bit like a kid in a candy store in Alberta today," Hesje said.

"The opportunities are here and they're huge. The problem is finding the right people with the right skills."

The firm is recruiting scarce trades workers to fill orders from Syncrude Canada and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s $10-billion Horizon oilsands project.

In addition to keeping about 300 employees in the northern oilsands region, Willbros MSI Canada needs to quadruple its Edmonton payroll into a range of 200 to 300 staff, not counting subcontractors.

"We're going to make this the best place for anybody in this field to work in Edmonton," Hesje vowed. Conditions will be suitable for an anticipated new generation of female blue-collar workers, he added.

The firm is converting notoriously rugged outdoor labour on oilsands projects into warm, clean indoor jobs except for final assembly on northern plant sites. The approach adopts methods of making offshore oil and gas platforms in pieces on land. Shop managers include veterans of East Coast shipyards.

"We're not going to do anything outside," Hesje said. "This is closer to an auto assembly plant than a construction site."

With 19 mobile overhead cranes capable of lifting up to 35 tonnes each, six fabrication and assembly bays and mega-doors nine metres tall and nine metres wide, the cavernous 92,570-square-foot factory will make the biggest oilsands plant sections that Alberta allows on trucks bound north to Fort McMurray.

The streamlined production system includes organizing the employees in the oilsands industry's controversial but growing "alternative union," the Christian Labor Association of Canada.

Unlike traditional construction craft unions, CLAC includes all trades, and members do tasks that are not strictly part of their specialties. Welders and pipefitters, for instance, are trained to use the overhead gantries and only have to wait for master crane operators to do the heaviest "engineered lifts," Hesje said.

"It's a manufacturing workforce. It's not a construction workforce."

gjaremko@thejournal.canwest.com

***Rhino*** · October 23rd, 2005, 12:17 AM

So , its just a plant right ? no new tower yet ? oh well , start small the go for all the glory.

cmd uw · October 23rd, 2005, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhino

So , its just a plant right ? no new tower yet ? oh well , start small the go for all the glory.

Willbros MSI Canada Inc. president Ralph Hesje said as his firm put finishing touches on a new 130,000-square-foot head office and plant in south Edmonton

Office and plant. All they are doing is moving their accounting and some exec positions.

October 15th, 2005, 10:22 PM	#21
itom 987 Edmontonian Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada Posts: 153 Likes (Received): 0	^ I completely agree! __________________ Edmonton's online community www.connect2edmonton.ca

October 16th, 2005, 08:08 PM	#22
cmd uw Urbis Plannerus Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Edmonton Posts: 327 Likes (Received): 7	Another airline prepares to serve YEG. Delta to fly international from SLC New plan: The airline will make flights to other countries part of its debt recovery because they are more profitable By Paul Beebe The Salt Lake Tribune Delta Air Lines will announce new non-stop service from Salt Lake City to Edmonton, Alberta, next week and may pick up service to Mexico City dropped by AeroMexico when it abruptly pulled out of Salt Lake last month. http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3120429 __________________ "First we shape our buildings, and then our buildings start shaping us." - Sir Winston Churchill

October 18th, 2005, 06:41 PM	#28
walli BANNED Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 753 Likes (Received): 0	Calgary top fifteen buildings total 8082 feet [average of five hundred thirty plus] Edmonton top fifteen buildings total 5832 feet [average of three hundred some] Edmonton's tallest building wouldn't even break Calgary's top ten! Edmonton's 5th tallest would make Calgary's top 25 by one foot! Last edited by walli; October 18th, 2005 at 07:52 PM. Reason: removed "Edmonton being a fur trading post" comment

October 21st, 2005, 05:42 PM	#38
cmd uw Urbis Plannerus Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Edmonton Posts: 327 Likes (Received): 7	Oilfield construction giant moves north where the action is Willbros Canada HQ leaves Calgary, opens new plant in Edmonton Gordon Jaremko The Edmonton Journal Friday, October 21, 2005 EDMONTON - Edmonton is now an oil capital in the eyes of a 97-year-old global pipeline and oilfield construction chain about to add a big Alberta link. "The centre has moved north," Willbros MSI Canada Inc. president Ralph Hesje said as his firm put finishing touches on a new 130,000-square-foot head office and plant in south Edmonton for a ribbon-cutting Nov. 1 ceremony starring Mayor Stephen Mandel. "The mayor likes to say Edmonton is the gateway to the North -- and in fact it really is," Hesje said in an interview. An ex-Calgarian, he is moving the Canadian headquarters of Willbros to Edmonton from Calgary after obtaining oilsands project orders expected to fuel sustained corporate and employment growth. "Our operations were in Fort McMurray. Our clients were in Calgary. You have to be close to your clients. But you also have to be close to what's going on in the field," he said. A "significant presence" will be retained among Calgary office towers of oilsands project owners, he added. But Hesje will live in the field, where he predicts the action will stay hot for years to come. He and wife Carol have moved to Fort McMurray. The Edmonton event will celebrate re-entry into Canada by an old oil household name akin to Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes. Willbros employs up to 4,750 employees in an international network based in Houston and Panama City. Founded in 1908, it has built more than 200,000 kilometres of pipelines in 50 countries and expanded into an array of construction specialties from engineering and project management to fabricating offshore installations in "modular" pieces. After building big sections of the Canadian oil and gas pipeline grid during the Alberta industry's first growth era following the 1947 Leduc discovery, Willbros pulled out as the action tapered off. The firm started its return by doing a 2001 takeover of Calgary-based MSI Energy Services, a private specialist in pipeline maintenance inside oilsands complexes. Canadian operations have since grown about six-fold from initial annual revenues in the range of $10-$15 million, Hesje said. The new Edmonton plant is a bright spot in the Willbros network. Elsewhere the firm has warned investors its 2002, '03 and '04 earnings will be restated at reduced levels following an investigation into alleged misconduct by a dismissed former executive in Nigeria, Bolivia and Ecuador. "You feel a bit like a kid in a candy store in Alberta today," Hesje said. "The opportunities are here and they're huge. The problem is finding the right people with the right skills." The firm is recruiting scarce trades workers to fill orders from Syncrude Canada and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s $10-billion Horizon oilsands project. In addition to keeping about 300 employees in the northern oilsands region, Willbros MSI Canada needs to quadruple its Edmonton payroll into a range of 200 to 300 staff, not counting subcontractors. "We're going to make this the best place for anybody in this field to work in Edmonton," Hesje vowed. Conditions will be suitable for an anticipated new generation of female blue-collar workers, he added. The firm is converting notoriously rugged outdoor labour on oilsands projects into warm, clean indoor jobs except for final assembly on northern plant sites. The approach adopts methods of making offshore oil and gas platforms in pieces on land. Shop managers include veterans of East Coast shipyards. "We're not going to do anything outside," Hesje said. "This is closer to an auto assembly plant than a construction site." With 19 mobile overhead cranes capable of lifting up to 35 tonnes each, six fabrication and assembly bays and mega-doors nine metres tall and nine metres wide, the cavernous 92,570-square-foot factory will make the biggest oilsands plant sections that Alberta allows on trucks bound north to Fort McMurray. The streamlined production system includes organizing the employees in the oilsands industry's controversial but growing "alternative union," the Christian Labor Association of Canada. Unlike traditional construction craft unions, CLAC includes all trades, and members do tasks that are not strictly part of their specialties. Welders and pipefitters, for instance, are trained to use the overhead gantries and only have to wait for master crane operators to do the heaviest "engineered lifts," Hesje said. "It's a manufacturing workforce. It's not a construction workforce." gjaremko@thejournal.canwest.com __________________ "First we shape our buildings, and then our buildings start shaping us." - Sir Winston Churchill

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October 17th, 2005, 05:39 PM	#23
coldrsx OMEGA here i come Join Date: May 2004 Location: Edmonton Posts: 359 Likes (Received): 0	^good to see...SLC is a money maker.

October 18th, 2005, 06:35 PM	#27
ssiguy2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: White Rock BC Posts: 4,968 Likes (Received): 31	I tend to agree with Walli. Edmonton and Calgary are both reliant on oil as their big economic engines but Calgary's is more the white collar end of it resulting in the need for more office space. Look at Vancouver. It is a decidedly branch plant city compared to other major cities and although there are a lot of buildings downtown most are residential or hotels. You don't build what you can't fill.

October 18th, 2005, 06:57 PM	#29
ssiguy2 Registered User Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: White Rock BC Posts: 4,968 Likes (Received): 31	Thats a pretty insulting comment. There is no reason for that. Remember I just mentioned Vancouver? Well if you think Edmonton is bad look at this. I did some research and found that Vancouver doesn't have one , I repeat that, doesn't have one company publically traded headquarters listed in the top 35 in 2004 by revenue. Now that's beyond pathetic. You think Edmonton is bad?

October 18th, 2005, 07:02 PM	#30
*Rhino* The Tropics of Canada Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: South Surrey , what the world thinks is Vancouver Posts: 4,416 Likes (Received): 19	now , now , Calgary is still the wild west , Where the city sometimes feels more like Montana ,then Canada , no offence. Just an idea from a fur trader .

October 19th, 2005, 05:08 PM	#33
coldrsx OMEGA here i come Join Date: May 2004 Location: Edmonton Posts: 359 Likes (Received): 0	comparing edm and cal is like comparing NY and boston IMO...both are amazing cities in their own right, but to compare them on anything other than baseball (hockey) is ridiculous

October 23rd, 2005, 12:17 AM	#39
*Rhino* The Tropics of Canada Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: South Surrey , what the world thinks is Vancouver Posts: 4,416 Likes (Received): 19	So , its just a plant right ? no new tower yet ? oh well , start small the go for all the glory.