Calgary’s latest office-to-residential conversion opens as Dominion Civic Apartments

The latest data from Avison Young shows office vacancy in Calgary is around 22 per cent, which is high, but work to change that number continues.

The City of Calgary is marking the completion of the fifth office-to-residential conversion project.

The former Dominion Centre office building, located at 665 Eighth St. S.W., has been converted into a 132-rental-unit residential tower with ground-floor retail.

In total, 84 of those units are for non-market affordable housing.

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The developer, Alston Properties, received around $8.5 million in funding from the city through the Downtown Development Incentive and Retrofit Challenge.

“It’s paramount to do projects like this,” said Bryce Alston, director at Alston Properties.

“These are very challenging and risky projects. Without the grants, these would be extremely difficult to do.”

Alston says the building was only 20 per cent occupied when they purchased it almost two years ago.

The city is working to revitalize the downtown core and Beltline, in part by increasing population density.

“This building that we’re in today already has residents, and we are starting to see the momentum reflected into the activity on the street,” said Thom Mahler, director of downtown strategy for the City of Calgary.

“Support for local business and just a general positive mood when we go out and talk to people.”

So far, the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive is supporting 21 office conversion projects, transforming more than 2.68 million square feet of office space into 2,628 new homes, 226 hotel rooms and a hostel.

Downtown Calgary office vacancy rate

Downtown Calgary’s office vacancy rate sits at 27.2 per cent, up 1.5 per cent from last quarter, according to Avison Young.

Consolidation and relocation within the energy sector are primary drivers.