Calgary is in the midst of one of its most ambitious urban development pushes in recent memory, with more than 700 new homes and a 132-room hotel set to reshape the East Village neighbourhood by 2027 — alongside a major transit-oriented development at Franklin Station that will deliver 350 additional homes, half of which will be priced below market rate.
The projects are being driven by the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), the city-owned development agency that transformed the East Village from a neglected district into one of Calgary’s most vibrant urban neighbourhoods over the past decade. CMLC CEO Kate Thompson confirmed that construction began in early 2026 on five simultaneous residential projects in the East Village, a pace of development the area has not seen before.
Five East Village Projects Launching Simultaneously
The five active East Village projects represent a combined investment that will significantly increase the neighbourhood’s residential density while adding commercial space, childcare facilities, and hospitality capacity. Here is what is currently underway:
Library Square by Bankside Properties will add 162 purpose-built rental homes in two six-storey buildings located just east of the Calgary Central Library. Construction began in February 2026, with move-ins expected in 2027. Purpose-built rentals of this scale are critical for the city’s long-term affordability — they do not get converted into condos when the market shifts, providing stable long-term rental stock.
Lyric (Lot G) by Ayrshire Group will bring 208 residential units in a six-storey building, while Vibe (Lot Q2) by Slokker Homes will add 218 residential units plus 1,100 square metres of ground-floor commercial space across 13 storeys. The Edgewater (Lot 41) by Trico Communities will contribute approximately 170 residential units across nine storeys, with commercial space and a childcare facility integrated into the design. The Truman Hotel on Lot N rounds out the wave, adding 132 hotel rooms in a five-storey building — the first new hotel in the East Village.
Franklin Station: 350 Homes, Half Below Market Rate
The East Village projects are complemented by a major transit-oriented development (TOD) at Franklin Station on Calgary’s CTrain network. The City of Calgary selected Onward — a non-profit housing developer — to build 350 new homes at the Franklin Station site as part of the city’s broader TOC (Transit-Oriented Communities) program and its Home Is Here housing strategy.
Of the 350 units, 175 — exactly half — will be priced below market rate, targeting working-class and middle-income households priced out of Calgary’s detached market. The development will prioritize three-bedroom family-oriented homes and include universally accessible units, addressing two of the most persistent gaps in Calgary’s affordable housing supply.
Onward CEO Martina Jileckova noted that the Franklin location is strategically significant: situated directly on an LRT line, residents will have car-free access to downtown Calgary, post-secondary institutions, and major employment nodes without requiring vehicle ownership — a genuine quality-of-life advantage for families operating on tighter budgets. Mayor Jyoti Gondek has cited the Franklin project as a model for how the city intends to use its land holdings to produce housing at scale without waiting for the private market to solve affordability on its own.
LRT Park-and-Ride Sites: The Next Wave
Looking beyond the current construction wave, CMLC is advancing master planning in 2026 for three additional LRT station sites: Fish Creek-Lacombe, Dalhousie, and Anderson. These currently function as park-and-ride lots but are prime candidates for transit-oriented development given their location on existing rapid transit corridors with significant surrounding residential catchment areas.
Community engagement processes are underway at all three sites, with planning team selections expected later in 2026. If even one of these sites reaches the scale of the East Village projects, they will collectively represent thousands of additional units in established Calgary communities — the kind of missing-middle and mid-rise density that urban planners have long identified as the most efficient way to grow a city without sprawl.
What This Means for Calgary’s Housing Supply Challenge
Calgary needs approximately 16,500 new units annually to keep pace with population growth, according to City estimates. The combined East Village and Franklin Station projects will deliver roughly 1,050 units — meaningful, but still a fraction of annual demand. The significance lies less in the raw numbers and more in what these projects signal about the city’s development philosophy: density, transit integration, affordability, and community-building are no longer competing priorities but elements of a single strategy.
For Calgarians watching their housing costs and wondering whether supply will ever catch up to demand, the answer coming from City Hall and CMLC in spring 2026 is at least a qualified yes — and the cranes now rising in East Village are the most visible evidence that the conversation has moved from planning to building.