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The City of Calgary has released details of nine new projects through its downtown office conversion program, creating nearly 1,000 homes and bringing the total number of projects to 21.
The conversions were first announced earlier this year as part of 10 recently approved projects, including plans to renovate the old Barclay Center on Sixth Avenue, but their locations had not been revealed.
Eight of the nine projects will become residential spaces in the Downtown Core, West End and Beltline. The remainder will be a shelter.
One of the new projects already underway is at the site of the former TransAlta headquarters on 12th Avenue. The existing tower will be converted into 153 residential units, with plans to build another tower in front of it, for a total of 488 homes.
All projects come from the city Calgary Downtown Development Incentive Programwhich provides financing to property owners to convert vacant office spaces into residential and hotel units.
“We are demonstrating every day, through projects like this and others, that urban centers can evolve from traditional office districts to resilient mixed-use neighborhoods where people can live, work, learn and, most importantly, connect,” Mayor Jeromy Farkas said at a press conference Thursday.
Six conversions have already been completed through the program.
Crestpoint Real Estate Investments is the developer behind the TransAlta conversion. The company’s director of development, Ian Pinchin, said converting existing spaces can be risky (it’s often easier to build new ones), but the incentive program has simplified the process.
“For us, knowing our costs and incentive expectations from the beginning has allowed us to reduce uncertainty and give us the confidence to develop two towers simultaneously, something we would not have been comfortable with without the city’s incentive,” Pinchin said.
He said the company hopes to finish repurposing the tower by the summer of 2027.
Deadlines for the other eight projects have not yet been announced.
Address high unemployment rates
Through the incentive program, the city has set a goal of repurposing six million square feet of empty office space by 2031.
The 21 projects will remove just under three million square feet from the market and create nearly 3,000 homes, said Alecia Peters, manager of downtown business strategy and analytics.
Still, Calgary has one of the higher office vacancy rates in the country, after a 2014 oil market crash drove people and businesses out of the city center. Starting in the third quarter of 2025, 30 percent of the city’s office space was empty, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE Canada.
But the city is optimistic it can reduce that number, Peters said.
“We predict that by 2031 the office vacancy rate will be approximately 20 percent,” he said.
Continued investment in office conversions is a key part of improving access to housing and making the city center more liveable, Ward 8 Coun said. Nathanael Schmidt.
“This has positive effects for some of the big issues we face here, including public safety and business closures, and also supporting public transportation and giving people options to get around the city,” Schmidt said.
Astra Group and Peoplefirst Developments have received $62 million in federal funding for their latest office-to-residential conversion project, which is now under construction. The City of Calgary contributed $15 million through its Calgary Downtown Development Incentive Program. A total of $40 million has been allocated for downtown office conversions in the proposed 2026 municipal budget.
Mark Garner, executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association, agrees that continuing the program is essential to attracting people and businesses.
He said Calgary should follow the lead of other cities like Kitchener and Waterloo in Ontario. Both have made investments in downtown revitalization and reduce vacant office space.
“We have to continue to make investments in the momentum we’ve created,” Garner said in an interview with CBC News. “Stopping this now would be a travesty.”
Farkas said the city has already invested more than $200 million in the conversion program since it was approved. four years ago. He added that the investment has also generated returns of more than $800 million from the private sector.
Given the success of the program so far, Farkas said, the city council will consider investing an additional $40 million during budget deliberations next week.
“The program remains oversubscribed, with strong interest from developers and more opportunities ahead.”
