Office-to-Residential Conversions: Models from Other Cities
Downtown needs more residents. The District is just starting on a slew of conversions and Mayor Bowser's budget gives more incentives to promote more. Two cities—Philadelphia and Calgary—are ahead of the game when it comes to conversions and have plenty of lessons to offer the District. Please join us on Monday, May 1st from 12 pm to 1 pm to hear from Paul Levy (Philadelphia) and Sheryl McMullen (Calgary) about how the District can best reach its downtown housing goals.
Learn more about our speakers:
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Sheryl is the Manager Investment and Marketing, for the City of Calgary’s Downtown Strategy team. She is responsible for the development and execution of the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program that provides grant funding to building owners to encourage conversion of vacant office space to residential, post secondary and other uses. She is also plays a significant role in ensuring the strategic implementation of the Greater Downtown Plan will be founded on a commitment of thorough financial analysis, sound reporting and good governance. Prior to joining the Downtown Strategy team, she worked with The City on the Green Line, the City Secretariat for the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid and in the CFO’s office on the tax shift, Financial Task Force and Event Centre files. Sheryl has also held a variety of other roles in both the private and public sectors in which she provided strategic financial advice and guidance on a variety of community development initiatives including playing a major role in the establishment and leadership of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation.
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Paul R. Levy is the founding chief executive of Philadelphia’s Center City District (CCD), serving in that capacity since January 1991. The CCD is a $31.5 million downtown management district, which provides security, homeless outreach services, cleaning, place marketing, planning and capital improvements for the central business district of Philadelphia. The CCD has completed $152 million in streetscape, lighting, park and façade improvements, including relighting of eight building facades and two dozen public sculptures on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway museums district; the illumination of the facades of 12 buildings on the Avenue of the Arts with synchronized, color-changing LED lighting. Since 2008, CCD has renovated and now manages four parks, including Cret Park at the entrance to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway; John Collins Park in 2011; and in 2012 completed the renovation of Sister Cities Park, building a children’s park and a second cafe on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Logan Square. In fall of 2014, the CCD completed the $60 million reconstruction of Dilworth Park, adjacent to City Hall, securing more than $40 million in federal, state and local grants and private contributions to pay for the project, which serves as a new gateway to public transit and a major civic gathering space, attracting 10.6 million visitors in 2019 and, rebounding from the pandemic, drew 9 million visitors in 2029. https://centercityphila.org/parks.