I always thought the Denny's was kind of funky for a Denny's, but this will be a good addition, especially if they decide to do a color change before building it. White with one other accent color and it would actually look pretty good IMO.
This one is actually pretty far west - 10 St.The faded yellow and orange remind me of the old lawnchairs from the 70s my parents had while I was growing up. Average form factor, terrible appearance. I agree that a 2 story podium would work better in this location. Maybe even no podium setback since it's on the north side of the street? 17th deserves better.... even if I do really appreciate that it is bringing a much needed population and vibrancy boost to the east end.
When I grew up in Vancouver, people would tell you condos are bad investment and only thing worth buying is land. Condos obviously became super popular primarily because a SFH became so expensive. Condos will never be popular as long as a single family home is only 2-3x the cost and relatively affordable. We saw it briefly in Calgary when condos shot up in value in 2013/2014 because the economy was doing well and real estate went up so people turned to condos for what they can afford.I was thinking, things seem to be going well for continued multi-family construction momentum in Calgary. Continuing on that thought, I came across an article that loosely ties into the continued construction of rental buildings.
Calgary is mentioned a couple times in the article below but really this article had me thinking about Calgary's continued building in the face of slowdowns in other centres. Calgary's condo market has never been that hot and prices have always been pretty reasonable; people don't seem to want to buy condos as investments on a large scale where a boom in construction is imminent. I think that's because the rental demand is being fairly well supplied.
Rental buildings on the other hand seem to be doing well. There are all the conversions and continued new construction. If condos continue to be a modest investment in Calgary for developers and buyers, I can see rental buildings continue to be proposed and converted from office buildings.
In this scenario, everyone should benefit: Renters benefit from supply being relatively equal to demand, so prices stay where they are or go down and developers benefit from the decently steady stream of renters, especially as Calgary continues to attract newcomers from other provinces and countries. Meanwhile condo buyers should still see some new construction that should supply the smaller demand that is there without developers over-building the market and sinking condo prices. Investment condo buyers should be able to be modestly successful but not do well enough to start a condo construction boom fed by investors.
I really see Calgary being in a bit of a Goldilocks zone for multi-family construction, steady development of all types should continue.
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Is ‘lifelong renting’ becoming the new normal? Data on the typical Canadian renter suggests we're heading that way
Here's what the typical Canadian renter looks like today and why lifelong renters could become a bigger phenomenon. Find out more.financialpost.com
I would love to see office to residential conversions along 17th Ave. So many empty and struggling office buildings that would be great conversion candidates for condos or boutique hotels.![]()
Nine new office conversions build on a momentous year of downtown transformation
The momentum downtown is stronger than ever following a transformative year in our shared efforts to revitalize downtown Calgary, capped by the exciting announcement of the details of nine new office conversion projects.2025 saw several major milestones achieved downtown – from the arts and...newsroom.calgary.ca
| Name | Address | Square feet converted | New Homes | Developer |
| The HAT @ 5 Ave | 622 5 Ave S.W. | 42,000 | 32 | Cidex Group of Companies |
| 510 5th | 510 5 Street S.W. | 112,000 | 128 | Bluevale Capital Group |
| 441 Fifth | 441 5 Ave S.W. | 78,000 | 63 | Bluevale Capital Group |
| Atrium I & II | 839 5 Ave S.W. 840 6 Ave S.W. | 209,000 | 180 | Astra Group & Peoplefirst Developments |
| Transalta | 110 12 Ave S.W. | 133,000 | 153 | Crestpoint Real Estate Investments |
| Epique House | 640 12 Ave S.W. | 35,000 | 35 | Alston Properties |
| Joffre Place | 708 11 Ave S.W. | 100,000 | 119 | Alston Properties |
| 640 Fifth | 640 5 Ave S.W. | 220,000 | 262 | Kanas Corporation |
| Wicked Hostel/Le Rocc | 149 5 Ave S.E. | 18,000 | Bryan Mar & Axis Projects | |
| Total: | 947,000 | 972 |




