The obvious way to “square the circle” would be to convert some of downtown Calgary’s unused office space into affordable rental housing. Indeed, city hall has sought to do just this., launched in the summer of 2021, aims to “support the revitalization of Calgary’s downtown core” by providing developers with grants to convert idle downtown office space into residential units.
“There are fewer head offices here in Calgary than there were in 2019, and the city now has the highest downtown office vacancy rate in the country,” NDP leader Rachel Notley said at an event in northwest Calgary last Thursday. “We’ll build a more vibrant downtown that attracts people to live here, to work here, to play, and to connect downtown.”
This all makes for great optics but, in practice, pouring more taxpayer money into “downtown redevelopment” will do little beyond lining the pockets of already well-heeled developers. The initiative will also add insult to injury for the owners of existing downtown residential spaces, who are just now seeing their property values recover after the double-whammy of collapsing oil prices and COVID.
If there is a genuine business case for downtown residential projects, developers should be able finance these projects without government handouts. The city has no business playing developer and interfering with the operation of free markets. City hall’s role in downtown development should be limited to making the relevant zoning decisions.