Some former office buildings to be converted into apartments in downtown Calgary
Posted Apr 27, 2022 7:32 pm.
Last Updated Apr 28, 2022 7:58 am.
The city has announced the first three office-to-residential conversion projects downtown are approved for funding.
A few office buildings, including a couple close to the Calgary Tower, are going to be converted into apartments.
Two of the offices are on 9 Avenue southeast around the Calgary Tower, while the third is on Fifth Avenue near 9 Street southwest.
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These projects are expected to remove around 414,000 square feet of office space from the market and create more homes including creating over 400 apartment units.
Director of the City’s Downtown Strategy Business Unit, Thom Mahler, says a decision by the council last spring, got more property owners interested.
“When our council boosts the program from $45 million to $100 million it automatically increases the interest in the program because they saw ‘ok now there’s more there’. So what investors can start doing is there is an inventory on the market. Now all of a sudden they become eligible,” said Mahler.
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Once the conversion is completed these three projects will receive about $31 million from the city’s $100 million fund.
‘The Palliser One’ building, is one of the first of three downtown offices to residential conversion projects to get money from a city fund, set up to help alleviate the glut of downtown office space.
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Mahler expects more projects later this year.
“There are 11 applications in total and they work through a process to get to funding agreements. So it’s a different timeline for each individual applicant but we would expect to have more announcements later this summer,” said Mahler.
