Now that you mention it, it looks like the exact same design mirroredLooks a bit like the one planned for Bow and 27th? by the train station.
If you look at any successful neighborhood... Kensington, Marda loop, 17th, bridgeland, Inglewood... they all have retail at ground level which is what makes pedestrian friendly, vibrant, safe streets (all of which have very high occupancy rates). Building purely residential is short sighted, and wouldn't happen in successfully planned urban cities. Calgary is letting developers decide what happens to the revitalization of these urban neighbourhoods and it's very unfortunate to watch; this would never happen in Vancouver or Toronto, where the vibrancy of neighbourhoods and streets is key to the success of the city.Unfortunately retail rental rates have to be quite high to pencil in buildings. We have to trust the market on this. Forcing them to build retail space they don't want just reduces the amount of residential and raise the price for those residential units that are built.
One way around this is to encourage buildings designed in ways that anticipate residential-to-retail conversion at the ground level, and also to make such conversions a lot easier from a zoning/permitting standpoint. A lot of really successful neighbourhoods not only have street-level retail, but retail that has taken root on narrower residential streets (e.g. Baldwin, Mirvish Village, or Yorkville in Toronto, or what is currently happening on 34 Ave in Marda Loop)Unfortunately retail rental rates have to be quite high to pencil in buildings. We have to trust the market on this. Forcing them to build retail space they don't want just reduces the amount of residential and raise the price for those residential units that are built.