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“We have a challenge in this area, we’ve been trying to activate and animate this area for well over a decade,” said Thom Mahler, a manager of urban strategy at the city.

Mahler said the city has identified the convention district and the west end of the downtown — which has the highest rates of office vacancies — as key areas requiring attention and infrastructure improvements.

“Lack of attention on these two areas are going to create challenges going forward if we don’t have a co-ordinated strategy for how we’re going to invest,” Mahler said. “The property owners in these areas (are) asking these questions because they, too, see the investments in the other parts of the downtown, like in the East Village and Victoria Park.”

Committee members urged the city and project team to explore ways to differentiate the proposed district from work already underway in Victoria Park with the BMO Centre expansion.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said Wednesday he believes there is room for both venues, but said the two redevelopment projects must be viewed holistically.

“The point is for us to think more broadly about our meetings and convention business, about what makes sense to be downtown and what makes sense to be at the new BMO Centre, and for all these folks to work together,” Nenshi said.

“It’s also (a) way of thinking about what our overall downtown strategy is to attract more visitors, but also to attract Calgarians to the restaurants, the theatre events and so on downtown. It makes a lot of sense to co-ordinate this.”

mpotkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @mpotkins