Five Calgary downtown building conversion projects to begin

The City of Calgary is continuing to make headway on their downtown revitalization program, but as the city is making way for new developments, there’s a focus on preserving the history that strengthened Calgary’s downtown.

Five new projects were approved Wednesday as part of the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program.

The projects are expected to add 430 units and house 1,000 Calgarians, and to “eliminate” 500,000 square feet of office space.

The buildings are the Taylor Building, the Petro Fina Building, Eau Claire Place I and II, and The Loft.

“One of Calgary’s biggest successes, and one that we are receiving international acclaim for, is our Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek in a statement.

“This program is ensuring that nestled in the centre of our city, Calgarians and visitors can discover welcoming neighbourhoods, unique businesses and active streets. The five office-to-residential conversion projects announced today will be key to supporting this vision as well as expanding the economic engine of the city.”

Watch: Calgary moving into next phase of downtown office conversion program

Three of the five projects are meant to bring “new life” to buildings in the west end of the city’s downtown, which has “the greatest amount of empty office space.”

There will also be additional investments to improve public spaces and amenities, which include redesigning Stephen Avenue and 8 Street SW, the western area of Eau Claire, the Eau Claire Promenade, and Century Gardens.

“A lot of these buildings that people walk by in downtown Calgary, the obvious ones are the very old buildings, the ones that are less obvious are the mid-century buildings built largely for the oil boom,” Thom Mahler, the director of the Downtown Strategy with the city, told CityNews.

“And so those are the ones that we’re seeing as part of this program that we really have the opportunity to tell the stories of that buildings — not just the architecture — but the people and the companies that were in those buildings”

Historical planning groups want more designation on older buildings

While revamping downtown means that some older buildings will be removed to make way for something new, there is a focus on maintaining history.

The city’s Heritage Planning Group wants to ensure buildings full of history can be designated as such.

Maxim Olshevsky is the managing director of People First Developments. He’s one of five developers to receive funding from the city for the project, specifically transforming the Petro Fina Building into 105 rental units.

“Our goal is to sustain the heritage elements that are within the building while improving all of the critical components that make the building function,” Olshevsky said.

However, the city says there is no legal requirement to maintain the historic value of a building that hasn’t been earmarked as a heritage site.

“Through our negotiations and working through the projects with them, well be encouraging the best way to do that,” Mahler said.

Amid a plan looking at what the future of Calgary’s downtown could be, Olshevsky says it’s important to give a glimpse of what once was.

“Canada, in general, is one of the youngest countries in the world, so we have very little historical infrastructure,” he said.

“When we have very little of it, we should put more attention into preserving it.”

The five projects will receive a combined $36.3 million from the program. The grant is estimated based on a rate of $75 per square foot of office space being converted to living space.

The final amounts will be confirmed and provided when the project is complete.

More information about the projects can be found online.