Calgary city council has approved a plan to switch Remington Development Corporation’s long-delayed office project in the Quarry Park area to multi-residential.

CBC reported that councillors voted unanimously in favour of the revised project, which will be located near the Quarry Park light-rapid station slated to be built on the future Green Line.

Up to 1,400 residential suites could be built on the seven-hectare site, according to CBC. Quarry Park is located in Calgary’s southeast quadrant near the Riverbend area.

“I’m really excited to see the pivot that Remington has made on this land in converting it to residential,” Ward 11 councillor Kortney Penner told CBC.

“I think it really speaks to the strength of the area and what Green Line is driving in terms of investment into housing along the line.”

Plans now call for the construction of three multi-family buildings of eight storeys on the parkade during the first phase of development, Kathy Oberg, president of of local planning and design firm B&A, told city council.

Two 13-storey buildings and two others standing four-storeys are slated to be built in subsequent phases.

Remington launched construction a decade ago with several office buildings approved for a single client, CBC reported. But construction was halted in 2015 due to an economic downturn, with only a large underground parkade and nine concrete elevator cores completed at that point.

Since then Calgary’s office market has been hammered by high vacancy tied to a number of factors, including a global economic slowdown, the effects of the COVID-19, growth of the hybrid work movement and a surplus of newer supply.

Rendering: Remington Development Corporation