Downtown Real Estate

[TAS]

This is the old downtown Bay building in Saskatoon, that Gene Dub converted into 130 2-storey lofts in 2009.

I wonder if that's a possibility for ours or has it already been modified too much by UofA so that residential isn't feasible? I haven't even actually gone inside that space although I walk by it often.

 

[johnnyboy]

^ I heard when he first started that project, the Hudson's Bay Company was still primarily involved in fur trading.

 

[TAS]

 

[bodsbods9090]

I'd love a nice 15-20 story building on this land!

 

[archited]

^ Then please don't show it to Westrich.

 

[wormwood]

^ Then please don't show it to Westrich.

Westrich Parking Services

 

[David A]

Office-to-residential conversions don't make economic sense here the same way they do in Calgary. Our Downtown core already has high supply and has consistently decreased in per-unit value since 2009.

Conversions are useful when the list-to-sell ratio indicates a strong seller's market in a neighborhood with high commercial vacancy rates. Downtown just finally got into balanced market territory in 2024, after years in buyer's market territory. We have the high commercial vacancy rates, but we do not have the residential demand.

IMO businesses won't move into Downtown until rental rates decline (landlords are still pressuring DT businesses to recoup their COVID shortfall), and the only way rents will decline is if demand stays low. There is also the consideration that landlords make the bulk of their money from the underlying property appreciation, so tenancy is less important, but there's not much that can be done about that. If anything, OTR conversions would exacerbate this problem.

In a perfect world, the ATCO site will just get refilled by another big employer offering well-paying jobs.

EDIT: No offence intended, Ian.

Well, it would be nice if there were some big employer not already downtown that was willing to fill this space. Any ideas?

Actually, we did a lot of office to residential conversions a long time ago before Calgary even even thought of it, plus our office vacancy is still considerably lower than theirs. Yes it is not great, but not far off the national average.

So there is no emergency crisis here to deal with empty space like there, which means the private sector can deal with it (and they actually are - several conversions have been announced in the last year) rather than have to have the government step in and fund it on a large scale.

 

[IanO]

Nothing more yet.

 

[policyenthusiast]

Unfortunate anecdote from LinkedIn about an OTR conversion not being maintained:

I've been without heat in my Edmonton apartment for 29 days.

My landlord is Strategic Group, the Calgary-based real estate company led by CEO Riaz Mamdani. I rent at Capital Apartments, one of Strategic Group's office-to-residential conversions in downtown Edmonton. My heat pump failed on December 25, 2025. It is now January 23, 2026. Interior temperatures have dropped to 9°C. It has been as cold as -27°C with wind chill outside.

Alberta Health Services inspected my unit and sent Strategic Group an official compliance report on January 14. Five days later, rather than scheduling the repair, Strategic Group sent another technician to prepare another quote.
I have received no confirmed repair date. No response to my compensation requests. I am sleeping next to a space heater with frost forming on my windows.

Strategic Group owns and manages residential properties across Alberta, including Capital and e11even in Edmonton, UPTEN, Cube, Missao, and Marda in Calgary, and Terra Townhomes in Airdrie. They operate out of the CN Tower in Edmonton and their head office at Strategic Centre in Calgary. They are currently developing the Barron Building and recently acquired Chevron Plaza for conversion.

I'm sharing this here because prospective tenants, investors, partners, and commercial clients deserve to know how Strategic Group responds when essential services fail. This is not a one-off maintenance delay. This is 29 days of corporate negligence during the coldest month of the year in Alberta.
I have filed complaints with Alberta Health Services and the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service.

People in the comments were extremely kind, offering the guy free accommodations and other forms of help. It's insane to me that his situation has gotten this bad, as any landlord is surely aware of how much cheaper it is to fix a heat pump than it is to repair a pipe that bursts in the cold.

 

[policyenthusiast]

Dug further into this, some more stories about Strategic (some are funny, most just awful):

• In 2016, Riaz Mamdani, the CEO, was nearly assassinated in Calgary. He was shot 6 times at his mansion through his Rolls Royce. They suspected it was because he never paid contractors for the work they did on his buildings, and someone put a hit on him.
• They are absolute scum. They raised my rent by over 30% in 2024. What’s worse, is that the city of Calgary is offering them millions of dollars to build rental units. Outrageous!
• As a contractor I stopped working for them over a decade ago. No regrets
• I revoked authorization for Strategic to debit my bank account and placed a stop debit with my bank. They made up some random amount and took it from my account anyways.
• I have a friend living in one of this companies buildings in Spruce Grove. The "non smoking" building. She can't even open her patio door now thats it's summer, she is surrounded top, bottom and sides by smokers. It's disgusting. She was warned twice while signing her lease, that the building is strictly non smoking. Dog feces in the hallway,.marks all over the walls. Up until this week, the carpets looked 10 years old. They at least cleaned those.
• the building were in is in need of severe renovations that were told to us would be finished BEFORE we moved in. 1 of 2 elevators are broken, the front gate that controls who comes in and out of the lot was broken. The landlords don't care about the property and it really shows.
• My mom lived there for 2.5 years and at the end of her lease they were forcing tenants to have their dogs dna taken to identify the owners who don't pick up after their dogs.
• My 2 bikes were stolen because there was a damaged door that led to inside the building. After it was stolen I talked to other residents and I found out it happened several times for the same reason. Basically, the door leading to the outside would get jammed because of a damaged bolt and not fully lock, unless extra force was used to close it, so perpetrators would come inside the building without even having to break in.
• One person overlooking multiple buildings, nobody's been around to clean the building in WEEKS, and the doors still haven't been fixed.

 

[Yeggy]

^ A bunch of this smells like a liable suit.

 

[Avenuer]

^ A bunch of this smells like a liable suit.

Would only be a successful lawsuit if all of the accusations were untrue, no?

 

[Gronk!]

There are For Lease signs on the Often restaurant on RHW. The black hole continues. They should bite the bullet and open The Keg in that location, or maybe another addition to the Sabor Empire.

 

[johnnyboy]

There are For Lease signs on the Often restaurant on RHW. The black hole continues. They should bite the bullet and open The Keg in that location, or maybe another addition to the Sabor Empire.

Don't think it's big enough for a Keg unfortunately. But it's in dire need of something other than an "ultralounge" though.

 

[Avenuer]

There are For Lease signs on the Often restaurant on RHW. The black hole continues. They should bite the bullet and open The Keg in that location, or maybe another addition to the Sabor Empire.

Correct me if I'm wrong but does Gene Dub own that commercial unit? I know the McLeod is a condo building but i have a feeling he owns and manages the CRUs.