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Other developers have embarked on similar projects. In Edmonton, the former Enbridge Tower, which has a peaked roof that makes it one of the city’s most recognizable buildings, was converted to a 300-room hotel by Lighthouse Hospitality for about $70 million.

The strategy has its limits, though. Office towers with large floor plans can’t be converted because the apartments, which need to stretch from the building’s exterior to the interior elevator corridor, would be impractically long. Also, the vacant offices are signs of struggling job markets, which limit residential demand. Calgary’s unemployment rate was 7 per cent in May, compared with a 5.4 per cent national average.

But Mamdani, 51, is confident in Calgary’s future. The city already has reduced its reliance on the boom-and-bust oil industry to about a third of its economy from roughly half in the 1990s. And even through the oil sector’s peaks and troughs, residential demand has grown, helped by international immigration and a relatively young population.

It’s those younger professionals that the Cube is aimed toward, Mamdani says. The apartments, which start at around $1,300 per month, feature white quartz countertops, floor-to-ceiling windows, built-in safes, high ceilings and stainless steel appliances, along with wall USB charging ports and a rooftop firepit with mountain views.

Mamdani says those amenities and the apartments’ newness — about two-thirds of the city’s apartments are at least 40 years old — have helped residents overlook the quirks left over from the building’s previous life as an office tower, including some inconveniently placed pillars, along with a few awkward hallways and unconventional floor plans. The building is already about half full even though some construction, mostly on the building’s exterior, has yet to be completed.

Mamdani is encouraged by those results, especially since Alberta Health Services didn’t vacate the premises until the end of August, meaning the whole turnaround has taken less than a year. City bureaucrats were willing to do “backflips” to speed the project along, he said.

“Everyone is on-side with something that’s this good for the city,” he said.

Bloomberg.com