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Office Space Conversion

I know I've always been a bit of a Calgary booster on these forums, though my outlook has tempered the last couple years with some stupid choices the city has made. But honestly, it is seriously astounding to think how much this city has "grown up" since I moved here. On May 1 it will have been 13 years since I got here. Back then it was a regional centre without much going on, and now it's becoming a full fledged metropolis... downtown keeps getting busier, no longer a 9 - 5 ghost town, other cities looking to us as an example of downtown revitalization would have been unthinkable a decade ago... I could go on and on. All that is to say, I'm very proud of this place.
 
The efforts are nice but downtown still has a long way to go. Its still not a very attractive place to hang out in.

The homeless issue is also worst than ever, although that’s a national trend. I took the decision to move out of the East Village because it’s been just too much lately.
 
boreal96 said:
The efforts are nice but downtown still has a long way to go. Its still not a very attractive place to hang out in.

The homeless issue is also worst than ever, although that’s a national trend. I took the decision to move out of the East Village because it’s been just too much lately.
Click to expand...
I agree. IMO there hasn't been enough attention on solving this issue because most Calgarians are suburbanites who drive everywhere. To people who take transit or live around downtown, the issue is very noticeable.

I am glad to see some progress on this front, like bringing more residents downtown and moving SAPL to west downtown partly as a strategy to improve safety in the area. But much more needs to be done.
 
Panda_ said:
I agree. IMO there hasn't been enough attention on solving this issue because most Calgarians are suburbanites who drive everywhere. To people who take transit or live around downtown, the issue is very noticeable.

I am glad to see some progress on this front, like bringing more residents downtown and moving SAPL to west downtown partly as a strategy to improve safety in the area. But much more needs to be done.
Click to expand...
I don't think you'll find disagreement there. Unfortunately, it's not something any municipality or province or even country has really been able to solve in the Western world. Without some level of draconian crackdown, it's just very difficult to resolve these issues. Part of what makes it seem worse is we are doing a good job revitalizing downtown - East Village, West End, Beltline, Olympic Plaza, such that many of the spaces where these people were out of sight before are gone. When they can't camp in the bushes of Olympic Plaza, they're going to be in the middle of Stephen Avenue. Not endorsing it either way, just that it's a complicated issue.
 
Panda_ said:
I agree. IMO there hasn't been enough attention on solving this issue because most Calgarians are suburbanites who drive everywhere. To people who take transit or live around downtown, the issue is very noticeable.
Click to expand...
I only take transit 4 or 5 times a month via bus, and don't notice issues myself, but by far the biggest complaint of everyone I know who takes transit, is safety issues of the LRT and its stations. Literally every person I know who takes the LRT has these complaints, and I personally know a couple of people who avoid taking the LRT and drive in to downtown.

Unfortunately the homeless issue is a tough one. Not an easy solution, but they need to at least work on safety issues around the LRT, whether real or perceived issues.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
I worry if there doesn't start to be some kind of progress in cleaning this up, there will be growing calls for a draconian crackdown.

hanging over all this is the potential closure of the safe injection site in the beltline.
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Wasn't the province considering forced treatment for lots of the drug addicts downtown? Haven't heard anything about that in some time now...
 
I wish councillors like Dan Mclean were as concerned about the housing crisis as they are about having to look at poor people from their pickup truck.

If homelessness and drug abuse increase, they wouldn't care. They just don't want to see it.
 
Panda_ said:
I agree. IMO there hasn't been enough attention on solving this issue because most Calgarians are suburbanites who drive everywhere. To people who take transit or live around downtown, the issue is very noticeable.

I am glad to see some progress on this front, like bringing more residents downtown and moving SAPL to west downtown partly as a strategy to improve safety in the area. But much more needs to be done.
Click to expand...
I respectfully disagree.

The reason homelessness has increased is due to the following:

1. From 2015-2022 there was rapid population growth in Urban centers which created a housing shortage.
2. Starting in 2012, there was an influx of fentanyl into the country.

Solutions:

1. Halt all immigration and build more affordable housing. (The ruling class in this country will not like this because mass immigration suppresses wage growth)
2. Fund more drug treatment centers.
3. Publicly execute fentanyl dealers.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
That day is... today!

calgary.citynews.ca

Alberta introduces new 'compassionate' addiction legislation

Alberta unveiled its plans Tuesday for addictions and drug treatment in the province, introducing a law first proposed in 2023.
calgary.citynews.ca calgary.citynews.ca
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They're also spending $180M to build the treatment centres. I support these initiatives in principle. Safeguards need to be in place but these facilities are expensive to run, and have limited beds. It is very unlikely it'll be used as some quasi-detention facility for those that don't need it. We've all seen the people hallucinating on drugs, etc. yet we expect them to make the conscious, and in the short term, painful (withdrawal) decision to go the rehab? We expect parents and guardians to make decision for children. Many of these people have less faculties than a teenager. It is compassionate to help them in the long term despite their short term objections.

calgary.citynews.ca

Alberta spending $180M on involuntary addiction treatment centres

Alberta's government is continuing the push for so-called "compassionate intervention" addictions treatment in the province.
calgary.citynews.ca calgary.citynews.ca
https://majorprojects.alberta.ca/de...tervention-Facilities-CIF-Calgary-Adult/11505 (location is just a placeholder)
 
trtcttc said:
They're also spending $180M to build the treatment centres. I support these initiatives in principle. Safeguards need to be in place but these facilities are expensive to run, and have limited beds. It is very unlikely it'll be used as some quasi-detention facility for those that don't need it. We've all seen the people hallucinating on drugs, etc. yet we expect them to make the conscious, and in the short term, painful (withdrawal) decision to go the rehab? We expect parents and guardians to make decision for children. Many of these people have less faculties than a teenager. It is compassionate to help them in the long term despite their short term objections.

calgary.citynews.ca

Alberta spending $180M on involuntary addiction treatment centres

Alberta's government is continuing the push for so-called "compassionate intervention" addictions treatment in the province.
calgary.citynews.ca calgary.citynews.ca
https://majorprojects.alberta.ca/de...tervention-Facilities-CIF-Calgary-Adult/11505 (location is just a placeholder)
Click to expand...
This is what makes me wonder how much street-level impact it will have.
 
newsroom.calgary.ca

Downtown Calgary adds 10 new office conversions and more than 1,100 new homes to the core

The transformation of downtown Calgary is accelerating with the addition of 10 new City-supported office conversion projects that will house an estimated 2,000 Calgarians in 1,100 new homes and remove more than 1.1 million square feet of office space once complete.Creating homes from...
newsroom.calgary.ca newsroom.calgary.ca

More information about the new conversions, including project details and locations, will be shared in the coming months.
Click to expand...
 
whatchyyc said:
newsroom.calgary.ca

Downtown Calgary adds 10 new office conversions and more than 1,100 new homes to the core

The transformation of downtown Calgary is accelerating with the addition of 10 new City-supported office conversion projects that will house an estimated 2,000 Calgarians in 1,100 new homes and remove more than 1.1 million square feet of office space once complete.Creating homes from...
newsroom.calgary.ca newsroom.calgary.ca
Click to expand...
With these new projects, the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive is now supporting a total of 21 office conversion projects that are transforming 2.68 million square feet of office space into 2,628 new homes, one hotel with 226 rooms, and a hostel.

So, 12 conversions in total, including Nexen.

Made a list of the 12 completed/in progress projects that with the new 10 total 21 housing/hotel and hostel projects. It is 22 if you include Nexen.

Cornerstone (Completed, with repairs required on the SE corner haha looks like someone with too tall of a trucked ripped off some siding.) Opened 2024 - 112 Homes, including below-market and accessible
Dominion Centre (In Progress) Open 2025 - 122 Homes, including below-market
Element Hotel (In Progress) Open 2025 - 226 Rooms
Place 800 (In Progress) Open 2026 - 204 Homes, including below-market
University of Calgary, "Nexen" (In Progress) No posted open - Campus for over 1,200 students
Taylor Building (In Progress) Open 2026 - 83 Homes
The Loft (In Progress) Open 2025 - 56 Homes
Petro Fina (In Progress) Open 2025 - 103 Homes, including below-market
Eau Claire Place I (Completed) Opened 2025 - 87 Homes
Eau Claire Place II (In Progress) Open 2025 - 195 Homes
Palliser One (In Progress) Open 2027 - 418 Homes, including below-market
Teck Place (In Progress) Open 2025 - 108 Homes

Is there a way to keep record of this list? Maybe someone already has?

Some questions... Where is the hostel? Is the conversion of Hanover not incentivized?

As for the new ones... A new one that we know of but I guess is not fully announced is the conversion of the 606 4th Street. Do we know of any others?
 
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