Future of downtown Calgary city-owned block remains unknown

It's a prime piece of land. But it comes with some baggage.

Two key departures from buildings just across the street from old city hall in recent years have meant both challenges and opportunities for the City of Calgary.

The Castell building used to be home to the Central Library before it moved to its new space in late 2018.

Next door, the Calgary Police Service departed in spring 2020 to move to its new arrest processing unit in the far northwest part of the city. 

In both cases, they left behind buildings searching for new purposes. Or redevelopment.

With all the empty office building space downtown, finding temporary uses seems to be the short-term solution.

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation is managing the properties which, together with some surface parking space behind them, are known as Block 40. 

Short-term uses

The president and CEO of CMLC, Kate Thompson, said even though the future of the property isn't known, it's trying to utilize the buildings.

The University of Calgary's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape has leased about a quarter of the Castell building. 

She said having students using the ground floor has been good for the vibrancy of the area and they keep more than just office hours.

As for finding other tenants, Thompson said the Castell is different from most other downtown buildings.

"It was designed and built for a library," said Thompson. "So the structure is really strong. It has a good heavy load base built into the design, so that opens opportunities to the building for different uses."

Cells now quiet

Next door, the old arrest processing unit (APU) building has a number of tenants using the lower floors. They include a Calgary Police office, Alberta Health Services, Be The Change YYC and an Indigenous hub. 

But the stark and somewhat eerie holding cells of the APU remain on the third floor.

Thompson said some film productions have used the former lock-up, but short of a serious renovation, the APU can't really be used for much else.

The future remains unknown for the city-owned land, which takes up about 60 per cent of the entire block across from old city hall. 

Bow Valley College has a building on the eastern side of the block.

She said there's been no indication from the City of Calgary what its long-term plan might be for the land and buildings or if it might be put up for sale. But it has a key location.

Arts Commons, which will be expanding later this decade, is one block away and Olympic Plaza is just across 7th Avenue. 

The downtown CTrain line runs right outside the front doors.

"We're right across from the old city hall which was recently renovated and we're on the doorstep of East Village and downtown. So this is a really great location."

CMLC estimates it costs $1 million a year to operate the two buildings.

Uncertain future

If the city has a plan for the future of the site, it hasn't been revealed.

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said the city does have the luxury of time in figuring out what to do with the property, given the current state of the downtown real estate market.
 
"There is general agreement that that is one of the sweetest opportunities in the downtown core. And because it is publicly owned, we have the opportunity to be patient with how we deploy that land," said Carra.

It is possible that at some future point, someone will want to buy the land from the city and redevelop the site.

"I suspect at the end of the day it will probably be a private opportunity. It'll probably be maybe a public-private partnership type opportunity, rather than a fully public play."