The Petro Fina building, on the corner of 8th Avenue and 7th Street SW. in Calgary. The eleven-storey former office building has been converted into 103 residential apartments.Peoplefirst Developments
In the spring of 2021, the City of Calgary launched the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program to transform vacant office towers into residential buildings. Four and a half years later, the program has supported the construction of more than 2,450 apartments, 670 of which have already been completed, attracting hundreds of new residents to the city’s core.
The sixth and latest retrofit to welcome tenants is the Petro Fina building, an 11-storey structure punctuating the corner of 8th Avenue and 7th Street SW. Formerly the headquarters of Canadian Fina Oil, an arm of Belgium’s Petrofina, the building’s transformation marks a new chapter in its history, and breathes new life into the west end of downtown Calgary.
“Petro Fina has quite a historical relevance for the city,” says Maxim Olshevsky, president and chief executive officer of Astra Group, an integrated real estate company whose development division, Peoplefirst Developments, carried out the building’s transformation. “We wanted to return the building to its former glory, but with a use that’s more relevant today.”
Built in the wake of Alberta’s oil boom in the late 1950s, the Petro Fina building is a staple of mid-century modern architecture in the Prairie city, designed by prominent architecture firm Rule Wynn and Rule, who sought to maximize access to natural light and ventilation by giving the structure’s footprint the shape of a U. Its iconic façade, clad in green terracotta tiles and buff-coloured brick and granite, received heritage designation in 2023.
Calgary’s adventure in office conversion
The Petro Fina building is a staple of mid-century modern architecture.Peoplefirst Developments
Upon the building’s conversion into residential, its unique façade remains intact, but its once lavish interior has been radically transformed, as some 140,000-square-foot of outdated office space have been adapted to accommodate 103 spacious rental apartments, whose array of two- and three-bedroom configurations is intended to fill an underserved niche in Calgary’s rental market.
“Having diversity in the market is really important,” says Mr. Olshevsky. “Our focus is on providing larger suites that can accommodate more individuals because we see a pattern emerging where it’s more common to have roommates than rent a one-bedroom apartment for $2,000 a month.”
The project received $9.5-million from the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program, which grants developers $75 per square foot of office space converted, as well as $740,000 in heritage preservation grants, Mr. Olshevsky says, noting that working to maintain a degree of affordability was top of mind throughout the process.
Because Peoplefirst Developments obtained loan insurance from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s MLI Select, a product that requires a portion of the rental units constructed be offered at a rate equivalent to 30 per cent of the median renter household income, 13 of the former office tower’s 103 apartments are being rented out at a rate of $1,740 per month, an amount Mr. Olshevsky characterizes as a deep discount.
But that’s not all. Aware of the challenges facing Calgary tenants, Astra Living, Astra Group’s residential property management branch, is offering 28 suites at a rate approximately 20 per cent below market to qualifying applicants.
“We provided students with special, early-bird pricing,” Mr. Olshevsky says, adding that at least 13 students have signed a lease at a discounted rate since rental applications launched in the spring.
The building's array of two- and three-bedroom configurations is intended to fill an underserved niche in Calgary’s rental market.Peoplefirst Developments
Asking rents for the remaining 41 units reflect downtown Calgary’s unbalanced supply of purpose-built rentals, which is largely comprised of one-bedroom apartments in older buildings.
For the largest of Petro Fina’s two-bedroom suites, whose area spans over 918 square feet, the monthly asking rent starts at $2,650, or $200 more than the average rental rate for existing leases in the downtown area’s newer buildings, CMHC data show.
Three-bedroom apartments, however, are pricier.
Leases for Petro Fina’s 52 three-bedroom units start at $3,300 per month, an amount significantly higher than Calgary’s average asking rent, which rentals.ca estimates fell to $1,944 in September.
The availability of three-bedroom units in the city’s centre, however, is dismal. According to CMHC’s latest rental market report, a year ago there were fewer than 100 three-bedroom apartments in downtown Calgary’s purpose-built rental universe.
In the face of a softening rental market, Mr. Olshevsky remains confident that apartments in converted buildings are poised to thrive not only because the city’s housing shortage persists, but also because the City of Calgary is investing in public realm improvements that make downtown an attractive place to live.
“The activation of Century Gardens with a basketball court has made a difference,” Mr. Olshevsky says. “My office is in the area, so I walk by the park every day, and I always see people there.”
The city's downtown development incentive is anticipated to deliver at least 2,600 apartments over the next six years.Peoplefirst Developments
Downtown residents are noticing a change too.
For Almoonir Dewji, who has lived in the downtown west end since 2017, the area’s vitality has increased, as city-led initiatives, including the basketball court at Century Gardens and River Hall, a late-summer pop-up that activates an underused parking lot downtown, attract more people to the area.
“I’ve noticed a lot of young people,” Mr. Dewji says. “Not just young professionals, but also young families with children, which is lovely to see.”
Mr. Dewji’s observations aren’t unlike the results of a 2024 survey, whose findings suggest that Calgarians are visiting downtown more frequently than they did in 2022.
But change is only beginning.
Over the next six years, the City of Calgary’s $200-million investment in the downtown development incentive is anticipated to deliver at least 2,600 apartments and bring about 5,000 new residents to the city’s core.
Moreover, because the scope of incentives for office retrofits expanded to include postsecondary institutions, 1,200 of students are expected to flock downtown early in 2026, when the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape relocates to the long-vacant Nexen tower, which is conveniently connected to the Petro Fina building by the Plus-15 network, a web of elevated walkways connecting most buildings in downtown Calgary.
As the execution of Calgary’s Greater Downtown Plan chugs along, evaluating the impact of office conversions on meeting the plan’s stated goals – which include a 15.5-per-cent drop in the office vacancy rate, as well as a $10-billion increase in property values relative to 2015 – is paramount.
“Two of the key measures that we will be tracking are the number of residents and the total property tax base,” says Thom Mahler, director of downtown strategy at the City of Calgary. “That’s not only the changing property values of office buildings, but also new construction and new leases, as those also influence property values.”