Equium Group, a real estate manager and services group, is expanding its Calgary portfolio with the additions of two high-profile downtown residential conversion projects.

Most recently, it was appointed as the property management company for Palliser One, an innovative office-to-residential conversion project at 125 9 Avenue SE. Equium also has one of the largest office-to-residential projects currently under construction, Eau Claire Place II for owner Pacific Reach, in its portfolio.

Founded in Calgary in 2011, Equium Group is a fully integrated, award-winning real estate organization with 150 employees. It specializes in residential, condominium and commercial properties.

Equium's portfolio under management is valued in excess of $6 billion across 22.2 million square feet.

Some landmark buildings under management include 639 5th Avenue SW and University City. It manages over 8.5 per cent of all condominiums in Calgary for over 55,000 residents. Equium's condominium corporations under management range from two units to 800 units, encompassing over 18,500 units.

Equium to consult on Palliser conversion, manage property

The Consumer Choice Award recently announced Equium Group as the Top Service Provider for Property Management in Southern Alberta for the seventh consecutive year.

"We are thrilled to have been chosen to consult on Palliser One's conversion and ultimately manage the completed project," said David Simpson, VP real estate management, Equium Group. "This project is a shining example of how adaptive reuse can breathe new life into urban spaces, creating sustainable, connected and vibrant communities."

Nawaz Damji, managing partner and broker, said the company’s senior management team consists of people from across Calgary's commercial real estate industry.

“We came together to put together an institutional-type product for residential management. That’s been the main driver of our growth over the last seven years. We still manage a couple of million square feet of commercial, but our real claim to fame is we have about nine per cent of the condo market in Calgary under management,” he said.

“That’s all been based on bringing kind of institutional, commercial best practice to residential management. And so with the advent of large-scale multifamily being built in the last few years . . . a lot of those bigger operators . . . they’re looking for institutional-grade management for those projects in Calgary.

"We’ve been winning a lot of those mandates.”

Palliser and Eau Claire Place II conversions

The Palliser project, developed through a partnership between Timbercreek Alternatives LP, a subsidiary of Timbercreek Capital, and Aspen Properties, involves the transformation of a 27-storey, vacant class-B office tower into a residential community.

Approximately 418,000 square feet is being converted into over 400 rental units and 20,000 square feet of integrated amenities. The development is part of Calgary's Downtown Development Incentive Program, aimed at revitalizing underutilized office space to address demand for affordable urban housing.

Eau Claire Place II is a 17-storey tower consisting of about 160,000 square feet. It will have 195 apartment units on completion. Move-ins are expected in late spring. 

“It's the largest residential conversion that's currently underway," Damji said. "This Aspen (Palliser) building is the largest residential conversion, potentially, in the country." 

The Palliser project is expected to be completed in 2026 or 2027.

“Because we were heavily involved on the condo side, the res side, we're actually able to help some of these other institutional owners when they're building these out, things we've learned, things we've seen through experiences," Simpson said, explaining the company’s mandate with the Palliser project. "There's value in learning those as part of the build process and the design process, so that's where we hope to jump in, help them on that."

“Everything from parcel lockers and things that you deal with in res that you're not seeing as much in the office side.”

More office conversions likely

With the downtown office market continuing to see high vacancy, and building valuations coming down close to land value for some of the existing class-C buildings, Damji said more office-to-residential conversions are likely.

“The difference between what you see in commercial management and residential management is the commercial managers usually have building operations in house, whereas the residential managers sub that all out," Damji said. "But we started off with being in commercial, we had building operations teams in our residential management platform, and then we added on construction project management.

"We added on, now, handyman, cleaning, plumbing. We aim to provide kind of an integrated service model for residential.”

Simpson said the philosophy is simple.

“We've just taken the best practices that we all experienced in commercial and we brought them to residential. We've identified a gap, and that gap is glaring and now what's happening is we've started to fill it," he added.

"With the larger institutional owners . . . they like that we've got the commercial background on the senior team, but we also have the experience in the res side now."