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Downtown Commercial Core · Calgary office building record

Lancaster Building

Office/Retail · mid-rise office building · built 1913 · 304 8 Ave SW

LiDAR roof height41.2 m

Storey-equivalent (derived)11

Footprint1,552 m²

Parcel958 m²

Year built (roll)1913

Assessed 2026$5.0M

Structures on parcel2

Nearest CTrain102 m

Civic address: 304 8 Ave SW, Calgary, AB
Community: Downtown Commercial Core (DNC)
City sub-property use: C108 Office/Retail · all Office/Retail sites
Land use district: CR20-C20/R20 — Commercial - Residential Core (Commercial - Core)
Height rank: #118 of 580 citywide · #82 of 111 in Downtown Commercial Core
Site coverage: 162% of parcel under LiDAR footprints
Parcel pieces: 1 titled piece · roll 068079508
Coordinates: 51.045967, -114.068255

Massing and site plan

Left: isometric massing of every LiDAR structure on the parcel, at true scale, viewed from the south-west with 3.9 m storey lines. Right: plan of the parcel with surrounding footprints, Plus 15 walkways and nearby stations. Open this building in the 3D city →

41.2 m · 1,013 m² · 9 m · 539 m²

Context within 150 m. Grey footprints darken with height; lime is the Plus 15 network.

How it compares

Roof height against the Downtown Commercial Core median and tallest, and against the city.

Access

Public-geometry tests only; confirm routes, entrances and hours with the building.

CTrain

Nearest station: 3rd Street SW, 102 m straight-line (route 201/202). Planned Green Line station 7 Avenue SW is 130 m away (Downtown Segment, per the City’s Green Line map).

Other office buildings near 3rd Street SW Station →

Plus 15

The City’s Plus 15 walkway geometry touches this parcel; the plan above shows the connected segments in lime. Confirm access points, hours and the interior route with the building.

Heritage inventory

The City of Calgary Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources records the following on this parcel.

Lancaster Building

Construction year: 1912
Architect: Teague, James; completed by William S. Bates
Builder: Dominion Bridge Company (steel frame)
Style: Edwardian Commercial
Typology: Shop and Office
Development era: 1906 to 1913 (Pre WWI Boom, Age of Optimism)
Designation: Inventory listing only

This site is significant because...

The nine-story Lancaster Building has been called Calgary's first skyscraper. Its U-shape with central light-well allowed all offices to have windows to the outdoors. The expanse of street-level display windows was impressive for the time. (Design Value, City Wide Significance)

This was one the first major buildings in Calgary to use steel-frame construction, which made such a tall building economical. Also advanced for its time were its fireproofing features, three high-speed elevators, and hot-and-cold running water throughout. (Construction Value, City Wide Significance)

The Lancaster Building was the ambitious venture of early Calgary entrepreneur and civic leader James Stuart Mackie (1860--1949). Mackie established several businesses, and his long service with the Calgary Board of Trade earned him an honorary life membership. He served several ter

Character-defining elements: Character-defining elements include, but are not limited to: - form, scale, and massing as expressed by its nine-stories plus recessed 10th floor, full basement; U-shape with interior light-well; flat roof with parapet; - steel-frame and reinforced concrete construction; clad in buff pressed-brick in stretcher bond; also (mainly) on the two street-facing elevations: off-white terra cotta and hollow tiles, brick pilasters with granite bases; stone sills and lintels (on main elevations, eared on corner windows); cast-concrete sills; concrete foundation; - evenly spaced rectangular windows; first

Source: The City of Calgary Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, entry 395.

Assessment history

Assessed values are The City of Calgary’s taxation figures by roll year, not sale prices or rents; Alberta does not publish transaction prices.

Roll 068079508 · Office/Retail

Series not charted. The City’s published values for this roll number change by more than half or double between years, which usually signals a re-numbered, split or partially assessed account rather than a market movement. The published figures are listed below without a trend claim.

Published values by roll year

Roll year	Assessed value	Change
2005	$8.7M	—
2006	$10.8M	24.0%
2007	$16.9M	55.9%
2008	$28.2M	67.4%
2009	$29.3M	3.7%
2010	$18.7M	-36.1%
2011	$14.3M	-23.7%
2012	$15.0M	5.4%
2013	$19.1M	27.3%
2014	$22.2M	15.7%
2015	$21.2M	-4.2%
2016	$18.7M	-11.8%
2017	$12.9M	-30.9%
2018	$14.6M	12.4%
2019	$13.6M	-6.7%
2020	$13.3M	-2.4%
2021	$12.3M	-7.5%
2022	$6.0M	-51.0%
2023	$6.3M	4.2%
2024	$3.6M	-41.6%
2025	$5.6M	54.2%
2026	$5.0M	-11.2%

Development and building permits

Applications the City has located on this parcel since 2012, from the Development Permits and Building Permits datasets.

Recent development permits 3 since 2012

Applied	Permit	Category · description	Status
2017-09-21	DP2017-4317	Signs - Permitted Use with Relaxation NEW: SIGN - CLASS E (PAINTED WALL SIGN)	Released Approval
2015-06-15	DP2015-2518	Renovations - Non-Residential EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS: EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE (REFURBISHING BUILDING FACADE), SIGN - CLASS B (FASCIA SIGNS - 4)	Released Approval
2015-02-10	DP2015-0502	Renovations - Non-Residential EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE (REFURBISH BUILDING & PARKING); CHANGE OF USE: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE	Released Approval

Recent building permits 21 since 2012 · 17 in the City’s office class

Applied	Permit	Class · work	Est. cost	Status
2026-03-30	BP2026-04939	3402 - Office · Unspecified Fire alarm repair	$45,000	Completed
2024-12-09	BP2024-25497	3402 - Office · Improvement Interior Alterations	$1.3M	Completed
2018-07-23	BP2018-09667	3402 - Office · Improvement Interior Alterations - Lobby renovation	$25,000	Completed
2018-01-09	BP2018-00226	3106 - Retail Shop · Improvement Exterior/Interior Alterations - Simons Core	$50,000	File Closed
2017-07-06	BP2017-08494	3402 - Office · Improvement Lancaster Elevator Lobby Renovations - Floor 6	$58,400	Completed
2017-04-20	BP2017-04050	3402 - Office · Improvement Existing Tenant JSS Barristers Group D	$170,000	Completed
2016-10-24	BP2016-12784	3402 - Office · Improvement Interior Alterations - Office	$1.2M	Completed
2016-07-21	BP2016-08441	3402 - Office · Improvement The Lancaster - Historical Facade Remediation	$1.3M	Completed

Declared estimated project cost across all 21 non-residential building permits on the parcel since 2012: $17.2M. Permit descriptions are the City’s records at retrieval; applicant and contractor names are not reproduced.

Nearby office buildings

The six nearest office building sites in the record, by straight-line distance between parcel centroids.

308 8 Ave SW9 m · built 1910 · Office/Retail · Downtown Commercial Core · 19 m
Dome Tower333 7 Ave SW145.7 m · built 1976 · Office/Retail · 2 accounts · Downtown Commercial Core · 48 m
Canada Life Assurance Building301 8 Ave SWheight n/a · built 1958 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 53 m
Stephen Avenue Place225 7 Ave SW159.8 m · built 1975 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 69 m
First Canadian Centre323R 6 Ave SW162.6 m · built 1981 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 106 m
364 9 Ave SW198.9 m · built 1987 · Office · 2 accounts · Downtown Commercial Core · 109 m

Lancaster Building questions

Answers drawn from the record.

How tall is Lancaster Building?

The main structure on the parcel has a LiDAR roof height of 41.2 m in The City of Calgary’s 3D building data, a storey-equivalent of about 11 at 3.9 m per storey.

When was Lancaster Building built?

The City’s assessment roll records 1913 as the year of construction. The heritage inventory records 1912.

Which CTrain station is closest to Lancaster Building?

3rd Street SW Station, 102 m in a straight line from the parcel centroid.

Is office space available at Lancaster Building?

This profile is built from public records and does not track availability, rents or tenancy. Submit a private requirement and current options in the building or nearby will be confirmed through Commercially.

Open in 3D Downtown Commercial Core office buildings Calgary office space guide Downtown map Skyline Office lease cost guide Office tour checklist

Public record sources: Current Year Property Assessments (Parcel), Historical Property Assessments (Parcel), Assessment Subproperty Use Codes, 3D Buildings - Citywide (LiDAR roof outlines), Land Use Districts, Transit LRT Stations, Green Line Stations, Plus 15, Historic Resource (Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources), Development Permits, Building Permits, Calgary Existing Buildings - Performance Metrics (BenchmarkYYC) — The City of Calgary, retrieved 2026-09-21. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Calgary. Building names, floor counts and architects, where shown, come from Wikidata (CC0). No brokerage, listing-data or commercial research source is used.

Boundary: Assessed values are the City’s assessment-roll figures for taxation and are not sale prices, asking rents, vacancy or availability; Alberta does not publish transaction prices. LiDAR heights are roof-surface elevations above the lowest ground point at the building perimeter and can differ from architectural heights. Storey equivalents are derived at 3.9 m per storey and are not floor counts. Distances are straight-line. Permit descriptions are the City’s records at retrieval and do not establish current use, tenancy or availability. Read the methodology.

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