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New Calgary Office-to-Res Project Opens Doors
A new Calgary downtown office-to-residential conversion project has begun occupancy, The Globe and Mail reported.
The opening marks the latest milestone in the municipal government’s ongoing effort to revitalize the city’s core through its office-to-housing conversion program.
The Petro Fina building, an 11-storey landmark at 8th Avenue S.W. and 7th Street S.W., has officially reopened as a multi-family rental property, now known as Fina, following a complete retrofit led by Peoplefirst Developments, a division of Astra Group, according to the Globe. The mid-century modern structure, originally built in the late 1950s as the Canadian Fina Oil headquarters, now features 103 rental apartments in two- and three-bedroom configurations designed to meet demand for larger suites.
“Petro Fina has quite a historical relevance for the city,” Maxim Olshevsky, president and CEO of Astra, told the Globe. “We wanted to return the building to its former glory, but with a use that’s more relevant today.”
The redevelopment preserved the building’s heritage façade—clad in green terracotta tiles and buff-coloured brick—while transforming roughly 140,000 square feet of former office space into modern housing, according to the Globe. Thirteen units are offered at deeply discounted rates through CMHC’s MLI Select program, and 28 additional suites are priced about 20% below market levels to improve affordability for qualifying tenants, including students.
The Petro Fina conversion received $9.5 million from the City of Calgary’s Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program and $740,000 in heritage-preservation grants. The city launched the program in 2021 to encourage adaptive reuse of underused office buildings, helping to create more than 2,450 new homes to date.
According to the Globe, 670 of those units are are already occupied.
Calgary’s $200-million investment in downtown conversions is expected to yield at least 2,600 new apartments and draw roughly 5,000 residents to the core over the next six years.
Pictured: New Fina Building office-to-residential conversion project in downtown Calgary.
