TECH FIRMS SLOWLY MOVING INTO CALGARY'S HOLLOWED OUT DOWNTOWN CORE.

By Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada: In the nearly two years since the COVID-19 pandemic forced workers out of Calgary's downtown towers and into home offices, the city's core has changed.

In the revitalized East Village area, the massive $80-million parkade opened by the city last spring is home not just to car and bike stalls, but to Platform Calgary, a non-profit organization that will offer incubation space for startups and programming for entrepreneurs.

But perhaps the most significant change Calgarians will notice if they return to the office in 2022 is the composition of the downtown workforce itself. For the first time in Calgary's history, a city core that was once almost solely the domain of the energy sector and the various companies that service it is home to a small but growing contingent of technology workers.

According to commercial real estate firm CBRE, Calgary has seen its ranks of technology workers grow by 17.9 per cent between 2015 and 2020 — an increase of 46,700 workers. Calgary also moved up six spots last year to number 28 on CBRE's 2021 Scoring Tech Talent report, which ranks 50 North American markets according to their ability to attract and grow tech talent.