A historic Calgary building is transforming from office to residential spaces

There is a vacancy issue in the city, but one group is looking to help by transforming a historic Calgary building into a residential space.

The Strategic Group announced it is going to launch repurposing construction on the historic Barron Building.

The Strategic Group

Strategic Group CEO Riaz Mamdani says this has been a long time coming.

“The rebirth of this beautiful and historic art deco building has been a passion project of ours since we acquired the building 15 years ago,” said Strategic Group CEO Riaz Mamdani.

“Together with our partners at The City of Calgary, we are completing an incredible project that is good for our city’s heritage and good for the vibrancy of downtown Calgary while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and construction waste.”

The Strategic Group

The plan is for the Barron Building to have 118 new modern residential rental suites and street-level retail built within the building by sometime in 2024.

The historic building was actually the first skyscraper in Calgary and was a big part of the economic success of the city for a long time.

You might also like:

But that time has passed and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says this change could help the Barron Building give the city another boost, just in a different way.

The Strategic Group says the Barron Building project will be their most ambitious project to date as it attempts to maintain the heritage designation of the building.

The Strategic Group

The Strategic Group says there will be some major environmental bonuses as well. The company estimates that the repurposing will prevent 4,175 tons of greenhouse gases from entering our atmosphere.

By repurposing the Barron Building, Strategic Group expects to save more than 11,000 tons of demolition material from going to landfill.