The City is working to bring more post-secondary institutions into the downtown area through office conversions. This helps build active and welcoming learning communities in The City’s core. The program involves strong partnerships between The City and eligible publicly funded institutions, with both focused on making downtown more lively and resilient.

Having post-secondary institutions downtown offers many benefits. Students get more chances for hands-on learning and easy access to public transit. It also supports the development of housing and services for students, boosts local businesses, and makes public spaces safer and more active.

The City is proud to partner with the University of Calgary on the first office conversion project in the program. This project involves converting an underused office tower at 801 7 Ave. S.W. into a new space for learning and research. The building will add 180,000 square feet to the University’s downtown campus. This will be the new home for the University of Calgary's School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape (SAPL). It will include:

• Design studios
• Classrooms
• Research spaces
• A robotic fabrication workshop
• An exhibition gallery and
• A community-facing design justice lab.

This new space will bring over 1,200 students downtown. That includes 400 current graduate students and 800 new undergrads from the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape.

Learn more here.

The Downtown Office Demolition Incentive Program helps remove excess office space in Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan Area. Its goal is to attract new investment and support the building of new homes. The program encourages the demolition of office buildings that are no longer useful, so the land can be used for housing and amenities.

The program offers a grant that covers 50 per cent of demolition costs, up to $15 per square foot based on the original gross floor area of the office space. Projects that need asbestos abatement or hazardous material removal may get an extra $5 per square foot, but the total grant still can’t go over 50 per cent of the demolition cost.

So far, the program has supported one project that removed three empty low-rise office buildings. That site will now be used for a new housing development with over 300 homes, helping create a stronger and more active downtown community.

Learn more here.

When building homes in downtown Calgary, developers often have to contribute to the Plus 15 Fund. This fund helps build, run, and maintain the Plus 15 walkway system. This cost can create a potential financial barrier to residential development in the downtown core

To help, Calgary is offering incentives to developers who initiate residential projects in the downtown core. Each project can get up to $1 million to offset the cost of Plus 15 Fund contributions. This support helps remove a financial barrier for new buildings or changes to existing ones that add housing. To qualify, projects must be finished within a set time.

Right now, this program is supporting three new housing projects. Together, they’ll bring in over $350 million in private investment and add more than 800 new homes to downtown.

Learn more here.

Implementing the Greater Downtown Plan means allocating funding for impactful projects, big and small, which move the plan from from a planning document to real actions. We’ve identified downtown vibrancy projects that contribute to one or more of the following objectives:

• Activate public places and spaces
• Catalyze private investment in the Greater Downtown
• Increase attractiveness of public spaces to Calgarians
• Allow The City and our partners to pilot, experiment, & prototype longer term projects
• Promote tourism and increase visitor numbers to the Greater Downtown
• Enhance safety & security for residents, workers, and visitors

Capital projects underway that will improve vibrancy in Calgary’s downtown:

• Stephen Avenue 
  •   Exploring fresh ideas for downtown Calgary’s hallmark main street
• Riverwalk West
  • Create a gateway to the Bow River and river pathway system in Downtown West
• 8th Street S.W.
  • Improving north-south connections from the Bow River to Downtown West and the Beltline
• Olympic Plaza Transformation
  • Re-imagining our Olympic legacy by renovating the living room for City Hall and Arts Commons

Activating places and spaces is essential to increase downtown vibrancy and make downtown a place that people want to live, visit, and establish a business. The City is setting aside funds to support and enable our downtown partners plan and execute vibrancy-building programming and events.

Additional programming and events that will be supported will be determined in consultation with our downtown partners, business improvement areas, and community associations.

To activate the Greater Downtown Plan move forward with the actions and projects that have been identified as priorities to shifting the downtown from vacancy to vibrancy, The City has allocated resources to a team dedicated to moving the actions required through this investment package forward.

For the last 35 years, Arts Commons has been a key contributor to social, economic, cultural, and intellectual life in Calgary. As Canada’s third largest arts centre, it is home to six resident companies and used by over 200 community groups.

The Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) project of expanding and upgrading Arts Commons supports the goal of improving and diversifying Calgary’s economy. It supports the Downtown Strategy and is considered a catalyst project for the Culture + Entertainment District.

Executed in two Phases, Arts Commons Transformation will both expand capacity in an adjoining new building and renew the existing facility.

Phase one of the transformation will expand capacity at a new location called Arts Commons North, or The Roadhouse. The Roadhouse will include three versatile, purpose-built venues, a connection to the existing building and supporting amenities. This 173,000 square-foot space will include a new 1,200 seat theatre, two smaller theatres, rehearsal space and an elevated corridor to the existing building and related amenities.

The Government of Canada recently announced its intention to double the federal Gas Tax Fund for one year, as the newly renamed Canada Community-Building Fund. This $77 million of new federal funding will be directed for the Arts Commons Transformation (ACT) Project Phase 1.

The ACT project has been identified as a catalytic project for downtown vibrancy for over 15 years. Arts Commons, inclusive of the 6 resident companies, currently contributes $53 million to Calgary’s economy annually and supports 683 jobs.

Upon ACT completion, Arts Commons will annually support 55 jobs in Calgary, provide $239M in labour income, and contribute $0.1M in government revenues and $386M to GDP.

With two-thirds of the funding for Phase 1 already in place, through the province and the City, this $80M will provide the remaining funding required, fulfill the Federal government’s funding pledge, and result in all three levels of government support. With $77M coming from the Canada Community-Building Fund, the City is only required to top up $3M to achieve full funding for Phase 1 of ACT.

Learn more about the Arts Commons Transformation.