Calgary's Downtown Dilemma

[MichaelS]

Very good breakdown. My one critique of your post is I have heard Connaught elementary school is already at capacity, with spillover students being sent to Ramsay. But, that sort of indicates that the downtown seems pretty liveable already.

 

[pdubs015]

I think downtown already has some great parks. A few that come to mind are Prince’s Island, St Patrick’s Island, the Bow River pathway system. Also, the Devonian Gardens are great in the winter. There are also already lots of great basketball courts popping up.

 

[Mountain Man]

I don't really get the point of that article. There are already thousands of people living downtown, I'm guessing the new residents will go to the same places current residents already go...

 

[Albertasaurus]

The article perpetuates the stereotype that Calgary is the only city in Canada that deals with an emptying out of parts of the CBD in the evenings and on weekends. It's just lazy writing.

 

[Beltline_B]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-downtown-office-conversion-revitalization-1.7061792

Thousands will soon be moving into Calgary's converted office towers. What are they going to do there?​

The news article title is geared toward office space conversion, but the article is more toward the public realm of the downtown core.

They'll do the same as everyone else who lives downtown. The headline of the article should be "How can we improve downtown's public realm?"

 

[Col du Edworthy]

It was announced on Tuesday that CNRL is moving out of it's current 3 buildings (Home Oil Tower, Bankers East & West) and moving into the Shell and Devon towers starting the end of 2025 and through mid 2026. 2,800 employees total.
They will be taking over the entire Shell tower and half of the Devon tower with room to expand there.

 

[darwink]

So floor 42 for executive offices, and a big block perhaps of subleases. https://legacy.oxfordproperties.com...B*MTcwNTA5NDg4NC4xLjEuMTcwNTA5NDg4NC42MC4wLjA.

Time everything right and it is a renovate and decant two step.

Good on CNRL - their existing space was very long in the tooth last time I was in.

 

[MichaelS]

While it is interesting to see the big moves, I was somewhat hoping that the Shell Tower would be a conversion candidate (I know, a very faint hope), given the square floor plates that are pretty similar in size to modern apartment buildings.

 

[darwink]

While it is interesting to see the big moves, I was somewhat hoping that the Shell Tower would be a conversion candidate (I know, a very faint hope), given the square floor plates that are pretty similar in size to modern apartment buildings.

Same, but I don’t think big blocks up to a million square feet really exist? Ten years ago they would have just ordered the second phase of Brookfield.

Better this outcome than either more building either downtown or in the suburbs.

 

[Surrealplaces]

While it is interesting to see the big moves, I was somewhat hoping that the Shell Tower would be a conversion candidate (I know, a very faint hope), given the square floor plates that are pretty similar in size to modern apartment buildings.

Me too, but tbh, the Home Oil tower is probably as good a candidate as the Shell tower to convert. Both are the same age, and the Home tower is nicer, also is right above a mall and LRT station. I would love to see it converted, but it's not likely we'll see it happen there either.

 

[Mountain Man]

Kind of surprised CNRL is leaving Bankers Hall, their space in there must need a lot of work!

 

[darwink]

Kind of surprised CNRL is leaving Bankers Hall, their space in there must need a lot of work!

It is straight out of the 90s. Well I guess 2000. And they were among the first back to the office. Perhaps they've realized that fully depreciated still in use isn't a good thing. Though that means they can replace everything greatly simplifying moving by avoiding the temptation of the largely false economies of moving most furniture.

If they had a 25 year lease in Bankers West, it is done in 2025.

 

[Mountain Man]

Would be cool if one of the BH towers could be converted to luxury condos and a hotel!

 

[Colinfill]

Didn't they close Bankers Hall Club a few years ago too? Hopefully the new office will have better facilities for employees.

 

[Duck Lightning]

I would be fine with any Bankers hall conversion as long as they don't ruin the exterior. They are easily my favourite skyscrapers architecturally in this city.