Living at The Annex, Calgary

The Atlas

Nine floors is the whole idea. Tall enough that the roof clears the walk-ups around it and puts the river and the skyline in front of you, short enough that the building sits on a side street without taking it over. The garden boxes on that roof get claimed in April and somebody is always up there in July with a hose. Half a block west, 10 Street starts and does not stop for four blocks.

Grounds

The Annex stands at 327 9A Street NW, half a block east of 10 Street, which is Kensington's retail street. The City files the address in Sunnyside. The building sits on the block where the walk-up stock of the 1960s and 1970s meets the newer infill running down toward the river, and it was deliberately put on the side street rather than on 10 Street itself, which leaves the shop frontages on the avenue intact.

Sunnyside is the flat half of the Kensington district and Hillhurst is the half that climbs, and this address sits on the flat. That decides the daily walk more than anything else about the location. From the door the ground runs level two blocks south to the Sunnyside CTrain platform and level again north to the shops, with no climb in either direction. A bicycle here is a serious form of transport for eight months of the year and a pair of boots covers the rest.

Homes

Nine floors carrying 108 apartments, finished in 2021. Minto Communities developed it and Nyhoff Architecture drew it. The plans inside run one and two bedrooms, which sets the building's grain. There is no three-bedroom floor plate here and no townhome row at grade, so the building holds one kind of home and does it consistently.

It was built to LEED v4 Gold in concrete, and both halves of that are felt rather than seen. Concrete carries sound between homes differently than a wood-frame walk-up, which on a block full of walk-ups is the difference a buyer notices in the first five minutes. The certification shows up on the envelope and in the mechanical, and it shows up again in January on a heating bill that is somebody's problem in a walk-up from the sixties and less of one here.

Nine storeys is tall for Sunnyside and short for anything across the river. The building reads as the tallest thing on its own block and as nothing at all from the downtown side of the Bow, which is a placement decision rather than an accident.

Everyday

The 10 Street shops start at the corner and run four blocks north to Kensington Road, carrying independent bookshops, coffee, restaurants and the Plaza Theatre at the top of the run. Sunnyside station is two blocks south on the Red Line and one stop from downtown, and it opened with the northwest leg in 1987. The Bow River pathway is three blocks past that, and the Peace Bridge crosses from it into the West End on foot. Riley Park and the Calgary Curling Club sit west along 5 Avenue NW, and Prince's Island Park is downstream on the far bank. Groceries are a two-minute walk. The whole daily list closes inside a radius you can cover before the coffee goes cold.

Amenities

The roof is where the shared programme went, and it is more than a patio. Barbecues and fire pits with lounge seating around them, garden boxes that owners can claim, a dog run, and an outdoor game area, all on the same level. That combination is unusual at this scale, because a nine-storey building does not usually get a roof with four separate things to do on it.

Underground parking is titled and heated. Homes take a titled storage locker. The building provides bicycle storage, which on this side of the river is closer to a requirement than an amenity.

One item on the record is a decision rather than a feature. As of August 2026 the corporation allows short-term rentals, which changes who your neighbours are on a given weekend and changes what an owner can do with the home. Confirm the current position with the condominium corporation before writing an offer, because a bylaw vote can move it.

Edges

Ten Street draws the western line and hands over to Hillhurst, which climbs from there to 18 Street. Centre Street closes the east where Sunnyside ends. Above the block McHugh Bluff rises to Crescent Heights, and below it the Bow closes the south with the pathway along it. Every side is either a shopping street, a river, an escarpment or a district line, so the block itself carries no through traffic and never had to. The wider map sits on the full neighbourhoods index.

The Annex Edit

Where to start. Hours move, so check before you go.

Prince's Island Park
Downstream on the far bank, reached on foot over the Peace Bridge. Festivals through the summer and a long loop of pathway the rest of the year.

Plaza Theatre
Kensington Road at the top of the 10 Street run. An independent cinema that is also a café and a licensed bar, with a food truck on the patio, so the film is optional.

Pulcinella
1147 Kensington Crescent NW. Napoletana pizza out of a wood oven, open until ten on weeknights and eleven on Friday and Saturday.

Sunnyside Natural Market
338 10 Street NW. A family-run natural grocer two minutes from the door. It is where the small kitchen upstairs stops being a limitation.

We keep the listings on the building page, updated as the market moves. Start with The Annex condos for sale.