The launch of a major new multifamily development in Calgary is part of GWL Realty Advisors' broader national strategy to expand its residential footprint across Canada.

“We’re a very active investor and developer of multifamily product right across the country,” Glenn Way, the president of GWL Realty Advisors, told RENX during a launch event last week. “We like major cities, we like urban locations.”

Speaking about the reasons behind the scale and site of the upcoming Calgary project, Way said: “If you look at Calgary itself, we think the population growth and attraction that Alberta continues to have is going to proceed in the future.

"This location itself, the walkability of it is like 98 (Walk Score). You can walk downtown, you can walk to 17th Avenue. It continues to fill in. You can see a lot of investment in the area.”

“We believe in the site. We believe in the city, and we think it's a good time to be starting now because this project won't deliver until the middle of 2028.”

The new rental tower at 1405 4th Street SW in the Beltline district will be 24 storeys with 219 units. The ground-level retail of about 6,000 square feet will accommodate up to five commercial units. 

The project is being developed on behalf of GWLRA client The Canada Life Assurance Company.

National multifamily growth for GWLRA

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said projects like this show confidence in Calgary’s urban core.

“The whole plan is to make sure that people understand our city is growing - and it’s a place where you want to be located. This kind of investor confidence is exactly what we’ve been driving. The investments we’ve made as a city into our downtown are paying off because people are seeing that we are a municipality that believes in itself.”

The development is part of a larger portfolio expansion strategy for GWL, which has residential developments underway across the country.

“We’ve been an investor in Calgary for many decades in many asset classes. From a multi-family perspective, we have less of it in Calgary - hence part of our desire to get new generation assets here,” Way said.

GWL is actively developing residential projects in other major Canadian markets. 

“We have Le Livmore — it’s Phase II, it’s 400 units. It’s going to be opening up this summer (in Montreal). We have a project right now that we just opened up downtown Ottawa. We have a project we just opened up downtown Mississauga, and we have this one that’s about to launch.”

The Ottawa property is called 320 McRae. “It is one stop from downtown on their new (LRT) line,” said Way. The Mississauga project is 1805 Enfield, located “downtown right by Square One, which would be a fairly well-known landmark.” 

Diversified investment strategy

Multifamily development is not only a response to market trends but part of a diversified investment strategy, Way said.

“We’re very diversified. We’re focused on office buildings, industrial buildings, grocery-anchored retail buildings and multifamily. We’re not specific to one asset class. We think being diversified is the right strategy for us.”

GWL has “about 10,000 units across the country,” and has developed “about 1,500 units since 2020,” with “about 3,500 that are either under development, pre-planning or planning stages.”

Key to the strategy is delivering new housing stock to address imbalances in supply and demand. 

“If you think about the housing stock within many cities, the amount that is newer generation, new design, it’s limited. It’s a small proportion of the total inventory. I think in any city it’s important to be adding new stock. When you add new supply, that helps. It helps to try to balance what has been an unbalanced supply-demand equation.”

As GWL expands its multifamily portfolio, the focus remains on long-term value and tenant experience.

“I think a renter is looking for great location, ideally walkability to the many amenities that a city can offer, lots of light, quality of improvements,” Way said. “We don’t buy to sell, we buy to own. So we try to make sure that there’s a lot of amenities within our project.

“We want it to be competitive and desirable to tenants today, in 10 years, in 20 years, and 30 years.”

Industrial and office investments in Calgary

Beyond residential, GWL Realty Advisors is active in Calgary’s industrial and office markets. 

“In Calgary, we do not have any net new [office], but we do own a number of office buildings in Calgary,” Way said. “We have an industrial project that we just broke ground on in Balzac - just outside of Calgary - for a 600,000-square-foot new industrial building, leased to a company called Princess Auto.”

Way believes Calgary's hard-hit office sector is beginning to rebound.

“The City of Calgary has had a rough go for a sustained period of time,” he said. “You’re starting to see a lot of private capital be very attracted to the assets here. We’re starting to see more leasing traction. We’re starting to see large users now start to be a little more focused on where they want their employees working.

“We believe in a city like Calgary that the bottom has been found from an office market condition, and we expect it to improve . . . The highest-quality assets are performing quite well and the tighter those assets get, that will start to trickle into the older stock.”

The industrial market in the Calgary area has been steady, Way noted.

 “I don’t think that Calgary and Edmonton have had the same growth as some of the other markets have had over the last number of years and that can be a healthy thing in that it might be a little more stable. As long as the population is growing - population typically results in demand - and demand for goods, which often means good for the warehouse or industrial business.”