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Downtown Commercial Core · Calgary office building record

Grain Exchange Building

Office · mid-rise office building · built 1909 · 815 1 St SW

LiDAR roof height31 m

Storey-equivalent (derived)8

Footprint694 m²

Parcel599 m²

Year built (roll)1909

Assessed 2026$1.4M

Structures on parcel1

Nearest CTrain218 m

Civic address: 815 1 St SW, Calgary, AB
Community: Downtown Commercial Core (DNC)
City sub-property use: C101 Office · all Office sites
Land use district: CR20-C20/R20 — Commercial - Residential Core (Commercial - Core)
Height rank: #139 of 580 citywide · #88 of 111 in Downtown Commercial Core
Site coverage: 116% of parcel under LiDAR footprints
Parcel pieces: 1 titled piece · roll 068107804
Coordinates: 51.044947, -114.0658

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 →

31 m · 694 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: 1st Street SW, 218 m straight-line (route 201/202). Planned Green Line station Beltline is 172 m away (Downtown Segment, per the City’s Green Line map).

Other office buildings near 1st Street SW Station →

Plus 15

The nearest Plus 15 segment is 35.3 m from the parcel boundary; the parcel itself is not touched by the network geometry.

Heritage inventory

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

Grain Exchange Building

Construction year: 1910
Architect: Hodgson and Bates
Builder: Unknown
Style: Chicago Commercial Style
Typology: Shop and Office
Development era: 1906 to 1913 (Pre WWI Boom, Age of Optimism)
Designation: Inventory listing only

The Grain Exchange is a six-storey, sandstone commercial building in the Edwardian Classical style of the pre- First World War era. It is located on 1 St and 9th Avenue in downtown Calgary, just off the original historic main street of 8th Avenue (originally Stephen Avenue).

At the time of its construction, the Grain Exchange was one of the tallest and most modern buildings in Alberta. Originally called the Hull Block and built on speculation, Hull was persuaded by the Calgary Board of Trade and members of the Exchange to make it the Grain Exchange which it became from 1910-19. It symbolized Calgary's central role as service centre for the grain industry in Alberta. By 1919 the Exchange needed more space and moved to the Lancaster Building. A variety of business and professional people have rented the offices since then.

Source: The City of Calgary Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources, entry 412.

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 068107804 · Office

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	$2.5M	—
2006	$3.3M	30.3%
2007	$5.1M	54.7%
2008	$9.4M	84.0%
2009	$7.1M	-24.4%
2010	$6.6M	-7.0%
2011	$3.2M	-51.4%
2012	$3.1M	-3.4%
2013	$6.0M	91.6%
2014	$7.4M	24.2%
2015	$7.5M	1.4%
2016	$6.7M	-10.3%
2017	$6.2M	-8.3%
2018	$4.6M	-25.0%
2019	$3.5M	-24.2%
2020	$3.3M	-6.6%
2021	$3.2M	-2.1%
2022	$2.7M	-16.2%
2023	$2.3M	-13.4%
2024	$2.5M	5.6%
2025	$1.8M	-28.9%
2026	$1.4M	-22.3%

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 14 since 2012

Applied	Permit	Category · description	Status
2021-06-29	DP2021-4727	Change of Use - Permitted Use CHANGE OF USE: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE	Cancelled
2018-09-05	DP2018-4241	Change of Use - Permitted Use CHANGE OF USE: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE	Cancelled
2018-08-17	DP2018-3965	Change of Use - Discretionary Use or Relaxations Required CHANGE OF USE: CANNABIS STORE	Released Approval
2017-10-03	DP2017-4527	Change of Use - Permitted Use CHANGE OF USE: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE	Released Approval
2017-07-10	DP2017-3071	Change of Use - Permitted Use CHANGE OF USE: RETAIL AND CONSUMER SERVICE	Released Approval
2017-06-30	DP2017-2923	Outdoor Cafe CHANGES TO SITE PLAN: OUTDOOR CAFE (ADJACENT TO 9TH AVE SW)	Released Approval
2017-06-15	DP2017-2630	Change of Use - Permitted Use CHANGE OF USE: MEDICAL CLINIC	Released Approval
2017-03-14	DP2017-0931	Renovations - Non-Residential EXTERIOR RENOVATIONS: RESTAURANT: LICENSED - SMALL (NEW DOOR ON WEST ELEVATION)	Released Approval

Recent building permits 15 since 2012 · 2 in the City’s office class

Applied	Permit	Class · work	Est. cost	Status
2025-05-21	BP2025-09524	3610 - Drinking Establishment · Improvement Occuopants number increased	$1	Completed
2025-01-12	BP2025-00558	3702 - Barber Shop · Improvement	—	Refused
2024-04-30	BP2024-08265	3799 - Personal Service. Misc. · Improvement Interior Alteration	$5,000	Completed
2024-02-20	BP2024-02832	3799 - Personal Service. Misc. · Improvement Interior alteration	—	Completed
2023-12-20	BP2023-21802	3610 - Drinking Establishment · Improvement Interior alteration (Cafe).	$15,000	Completed
2023-03-14	BP2023-03181	3799 - Personal Service. Misc. · Improvement	—	Cancelled
2021-01-12	BP2021-00541	3799 - Personal Service. Misc. · Improvement D Interior Alterations	$5,000	Completed
2019-09-23	BP2019-13020	3106 - Retail Shop · Improvement Group E Superblend Cannabis	$20,000	Completed

Declared estimated project cost across all 15 non-residential building permits on the parcel since 2012: $306,383. 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.

150 9 Ave SW124.4 m · built 1979 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 71 m
207 9 Ave SW95.1 m · built 2008 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 107 m
850 2 St SW63.5 m · built 2009 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 109 m
110 9 Ave SW72.6 m · built 2010 · Office · 2 accounts · Downtown Commercial Core · 145 m
Stephen Avenue Place225 7 Ave SW159.8 m · built 1975 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 173 m
Canada Life Assurance Building301 8 Ave SWheight n/a · built 1958 · Office · Downtown Commercial Core · 183 m

Grain Exchange Building questions

Answers drawn from the record.

How tall is Grain Exchange Building?

The main structure on the parcel has a LiDAR roof height of 31 m in The City of Calgary’s 3D building data, a storey-equivalent of about 8 at 3.9 m per storey.

When was Grain Exchange Building built?

The City’s assessment roll records 1909 as the year of construction. The heritage inventory records 1910.

Which CTrain station is closest to Grain Exchange Building?

1st Street SW Station, 218 m in a straight line from the parcel centroid.

Is office space available at Grain Exchange 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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