Construction on a central Calgary office tower will soon begin to turn it into affordable housing units.

Sierra Place, located on the corner of 7th Avenue and 6th Street S.W., has been empty for two years. However, two local organizations, Inn From the Cold and HomeSpace Society, are partnering to turn it into affordable housing along the CTrain route. Six floors of the 10-storey building will be converted into 82 units of affordable housing for vulnerable individuals, including low-income women, women with children, Indigenous people and new Calgarians.

The remaining four floors will be home to shelter, transitional and support services, said a news release Wednesday.

“Sierra Place marks the first time a vacant office tower in Calgary has been converted into affordable housing,” said Bernadette Majdell, CEO, HomeSpace in the release. “Nearly one out of every three office towers in our city’s core are sitting empty, at the same time that Calgary is in desperate need of 15,000 affordable homes.”

The building is expected to be home to 200 people within a year, said Majdell. She said it will provide those living in the affordable units easy access to transit and amenities.

Sierra Place used to be the headquarters of Dome Petroleum and is expected to be reopened in fall 2022. The project to convert the building is expected to create 160 jobs and is budgeted at $28.5 million. Various governments are providing financial support, with the city of Calgary providing $5.5 million.

A report issued by Avison Young released earlier this year showed 26.9 per cent of downtown offices sat vacant as of the fourth quarter of 2020. The report warned that number could jump past 30 per cent in the next 12 to 24 months.

Calgary’s overall office vacancy rate in the fourth quarter was 24.1 per cent.

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