Urban East

Placemaking is a concept which encourages planners and real estate developers to capitalize on a community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces and neighbourhoods that promote health, happiness, and well being. Urban East knows that better businesses make better places. Urban East aims to accomplish placemaking through intelligent partnerships; pairing small businesses with forward thinking real estate developers who can create assets that foster community. Strong and innovative businesses, thriving cross-sector networks, and well-designed physical space, are all required to build places that foster innovation and become locations that residents are proud of. Too often, real estate development projects are executed without thought of the end-user. In a sense, each real estate development is a small business looking to plan, operate, and sell within a specified timeframe. Constructing a building without a clear end user is like starting a business without considering a target market. Larger cities have identified trends in the living and working habits of millennials, and have designed for these changing times. Atlantic Canada, and St. John’s by extension, largely has not adapted for this trend. In order to build better neighbourhoods, and subsequently better cities and regions, we must design and construct better places. Urban East can assist developers who want to address these challenges by helping them adapt their processes, and ultimately reduce project risk and increase project potential. Urban East will also work with entrepreneurs to construct the space they know they need, but are struggling to find through traditional methods. By helping entrepreneurs understand zoning, identify workable property, navigate municipal applications and approvals, and manage development projects, the company hopes to work with new businesses to either pursue property ownership, or allow them to design the perfect space for them to lease. Better neighbourhoods and cities are not created solely through building better physical spaces. Innovative businesses that understand how to interact with the built landscape, as well as their neighbours, are integral to fostering communities worth working in. In addition to real estate projects, Urban East can provides businesses with practical solutions to problems relating to creative ideation, business development, physical location, strategic planning, and process improvement. Urban East can also work with businesses to create practical strategic partnerships. The company understand real estate challenges and how to solve them. By coordinating with entrepreneurs and the city’s startup community, placemaking can happen through partnership.