Orange Lofts
Orange Lofts sits at 535 8 Avenue SE, in East Village. Battistella Developments finished it in 2003, six storeys carrying 106 lofts, drawn by Kasian Kennedy. The homes are live-work by design, with open floor plans, sixteen-foot exposed concrete ceilings, polished concrete floors, exposed mechanical piping, and steel kitchen shelves and railings. The ground floor carries shops, and a run of change-of-use permits since 2003 records what has traded there, from salons to a small drinking establishment.
The roof carries a common patio with gas barbecue hookups and the downtown skyline in front of it. There is a party room. Parking is titled and underground, and there are elevators.
The loft that was never a warehouse
The City permitted this building as new construction, and the land it went up on had been a licensed surface parking lot as recently as 1993. Battistella's own description is precise about it, saying the building has the appeal of a revitalized warehouse loft. The industrial character was drawn rather than inherited. The ceilings and the concrete are original to a building finished in 2003, and nothing in it was salvaged from an older one.
What is around it
East Village sits where the Bow and the Elbow meet, which is where the city started. RiverWalk runs the water's edge from the Centre Street bridge around to the point, and St Patrick's Island sits offshore with a footbridge and a beach. The Central Library opened in November 2018 at the western edge. The Simmons Building, a 1912 mattress factory, reopened in 2015 with its painted signage intact. City Hall and Bow Valley College station is west along 7 Avenue, carrying both CTrain lines since 1981.
We wrote about the community around it. Living in East Village. We keep the listings across the whole community on East Village condos for sale.
As of December 2025, Orange Lofts did not permit short-term rentals. Confirm the current position with the condominium corporation before writing an offer.
