Major Stephen Avenue development scrapped before requested assessment began

A major development project on Stephen Avenue — which included plans for office and residential towers, retail space and a hotel — has been scrapped by development company Triovest.

Dubbed Stephen Avenue Quarter, the project was proposed last spring and then paused in February after the Alberta government requested a heritage assessment of the street's existing buildings.

It would have seen three large towers transform the block between Centre Street and First Street S.W., and Stephen Avenue and Seventh Avenue. One proposed tower was planned to be the tallest building in Calgary, at 66 storeys.

Ryan Schott, vice president of marketing and communications at Triovest, said in an emailed statement that the company remains committed to investing in Calgary.

"The original development plan centred around an anchor tenant driving much of the application's programming and is no longer a part of the project plan, which means withdrawing the permits," said Schott.

He didn't say who the tenant was, but said the company is taking time to envision how the proposed project fits into the downtown core.

Josh Traptow, executive director of Heritage Calgary, has been raising concerns about the heritage integrity of existing buildings with this development.

There are a total of 17 historically significant sites present in the redevelopment area, seven of which are legally protected under heritage designations from both municipal and provincial governments. 

Of those buildings, 15 would have been affected by the project.

"We were kind of left scratching our heads as to how the developer was going to just have the facades of these buildings when these buildings were legally protected," said Traptow on CBC's The Homestretch.

To his understanding, Triovest didn't put forward a consultant to take on the heritage assessment.

"Now with the [withdrawal] of the permits, the province will likely no longer see a need to have a resource impact assessment, given there's no proposed development," Traptow said.

He says he's happy to provide developers with advice on best practices when it comes to heritage preservation.

"I'm hopeful that whatever comes back will perhaps be more sympathetic when it comes to heritage. That heritage will be viewed as kind of an anchor point, as an asset to development."