Calgary-based Enright Capital Ltd. has purchased 635 8th Avenue SW from Cadillac Fairview, a subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Enright Capital President Patrick McFetridge announced the deal on LinkedIn on October 24. The sale price was not disclosed, but a figure of $16.9 million was reported in other media outlets.

Plans for the Class B property include “a new gym, conference center and tenant lounge,” McFetridge said during the announcement.

Class B and C buildings have dampened Calgary’s office market, prompting the city to launch the Calgary Downtown Development Incentive Program to fill vacancies that CBRE Ltd. was estimated at just under 30 percent downtown in the third quarter.

Their renovation or conversion to other uses – or in some cases, their demolition – has been key to the city’s management strategy. In September, Calgary injected new money into the development incentive program to maintain activity.

However, other headwinds held investors back.

Cadillac Fairview’s plans to sell two of its six Calgary office assets as part of a steady rebalancing of its portfolio made headlines in February, but the deals did not happen immediately.

Susan Thompson, associate director of research at Colliers Canada in Vancouver, cited the issue of price discovery as a factor.

“There’s the question of ‘Can we find a buyer for these products,’ and everyone is trying to figure out what revenue is in place, what the price per square foot is,” Thompson said. “Since there hasn’t been a lot of activity in the market, it’s very difficult to determine what those prices should be.”

Encor Place traded on May 2 for $21.5 million with Calgary property manager UnitiiPM Inc., but the delay in the second deal was seen as a sign buyers weren’t quite ready to launch despite greater volumes of activity.

CBRE pointed to Germany’s Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH’s purchase of 401 West Georgia Street and 402 Dunsmuir Street for about $300 million in May as the signal investors needed. But many remain cautious.

“It’s a bit of a waiting game as to when this will actually start to unlock activity,” Thompson said after the Bank of Canada began cutting rates in June. “Some will be more willing to move now, and others will want to see rates fall further.”

With four rate cuts having reduced rates by 125 basis points, the action begins.

Enright’s deal signals greater confidence in office transactions, as cheaper financing and greater economic certainty point to a normalization of market conditions.

Enright did not immediately respond to a request for comment.