Calgary marked a major milestone in the redevelopment of the west end of downtown with the grand opening of the Dominion Civic Apartments on Oct. 22, with the fifth finished office-to-residential conversion project and the sixth overall.

Although residents didn’t have to wait for the official day to fill its 132 suites, with developer Alston Properties saying that it had already reached 50 per cent occupancy.

What makes the latest residential tower project special to the revitalization efforts of the city is the focus on single people and students, providing a prime location for students to house next to the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture Planning and Landscape opening in January of 2026.

Bryce Alston, Director of Alston Properties, said that 84 of the suites met the Calgary Housing and Mortgage Corporation’s non-market rates for the city.

“Of those 84 units, also keep in mind that we have fully inclusive rents here, so that includes heat, hot water, high-speed internet and hydro,” he said.

Alston said that affordability has attracted UCalgary and Bow Valley College students. The building’s location on 7 Avenue and 8 Street SW is just on the corner of Century Gardens and the LRT station located there.

“The fact that people see this building and this type of product as desirable, and then it also speaks to the work that’s been done in this community to make it more of a desirable community to live in as well.”

Among the amenities are a co-working space, a fully furnished gym, and a lounge for residents.

Focusing on providing smaller, more affordable housing—as the units range from 490 to 590 sq. ft. for one-bedroom apartments, and 810 for two bedrooms—means a valuable addition to the mix of demographics in the west end, said Alston.

“I think it’s paramount that developers recognize that we’re bringing quite a bit of new supply into one area. So, it’s ideal to kind of build a complementary product, and this product is kind of market leading from a price point of view,” he said.

Affordable and livable

Thom Mahler, Director of Downtown Strategy with the City of Calgary said that while families were the most important addition to change the character of a community, it was important to have a wide diversity of community demographics.

“There’s an existing population, a long-term population at the west end of downtown that hasn’t seen a lot of renewed growth for some time. I think they’re starting to see that changing dynamic in the streets. We’re right near Century Gardens, the city park that we’ve invested a considerable amount in on the physical infrastructure side, and now we’re adding to that, in partnership with groups like Calgary Surge and the Parks Foundation, ways of programming that space,” he said.

“If you live down here, it’s not just a place to go to and spend some time outside. But we actually have activities and things for people to do in the area.”

The conversion was the first in Calgary for Alston Properties, which had previously completed projects in Winnipeg and Victoria.

Alston said that when they looked at the building to convert 22 months ago, it was an ailing Class C office building with a 20 per cent occupancy.

“The impetus for us establishing ourselves in Calgary and developing here was the downtown conversion program. That incentive just catalyzed us, moving our operations here and focusing on development within the downtown Calgary market,” he said.

As part of the conversion, Mahler said that the city provided Alston Properties with two city grants: $7.5 million for the downtown conversion and $1.2 million as part of the climate retrofit challenge.

“Stacking of grants allows these projects to be developed to meet multiple needs for the City, but also for the developer. This is lower operating costs for the developer long term, and it’s resulting in still-affordable rents for residents right in the heart of the city. It’s a very affordable and diverse lifestyle that you can live within this location for a reasonable price in a clean, safe and new building,” he said.

Alston said the grants were essential to de-risk the conversion of aging office towers.

“These are very challenging and risky projects, and without the grants, these would be extremely difficult to do,” he said.

The climate retrofit challenge grant was able to provide funds to upgrade the HVAC systems in the building, as well as create a brand new building envelope and new water efficiency measures.

Overall, the elements that were incorporated into this building were able to drive the energy efficiency from the original building down about 51 per cent, and that translates to 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the original building that was here before,” said Nicole Newton, Director of Climate and Environment at the City of Calgary.

“When we think about this building, the benefits of it really translate to the residents and the livability of this building in terms of long-term operating costs and the energy efficiency measures that are put in place.”

She said that the grant also helped with a climate risk and resilience assessment and to implement some of those measures for the long-term livability of residents.