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Downtown Real Estate

cpnfantstk said:
This article leads to another that states that many of our office buidlings are not suitable for conversion to residential while Calgary has an incentive program for developers to convert their office towers. Why are their's suitable and ours are not? Here's the article link.
Nearly one-in-five office spaces empty in Downtown Edmonton, hitting 36 year high
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Calgary has more office buildings total, so it will have a higher absolute number of suitable buildings even if the % suitable is the same as us.

Also, the city-funded grants Calgary is offering to make these conversions pencil out are pretty high ($75/sqft). That's 45k per 600sqft unit.

Converting vacant office space downtown into residential is a laudable goal, but we've gotta think about the opportunity cost for this level of public subsidy.
 
cpnfantstk said:
This article leads to another that states that many of our office buidlings are not suitable for conversion to residential while Calgary has an incentive program for developers to convert their office towers. Why are their's suitable and ours are not? Here's the article link.
Nearly one-in-five office spaces empty in Downtown Edmonton, hitting 36 year high
Click to expand...
Traditional explanation is that the vacancies are in larger floor-plate buildings, which cannot be as easily demised into residential units. I think that a lot could be done, though, with some creativity and out of the box thinking. The incentive program is interesting, something city council should look at in my opinion. But roll it into another new construction incentive too, because we really need new construction of residential to continue, not just conversions.
 
I wonder what the tradeoff is to do conversions vs residential incentives and let the private sector do renovations (HSBC, Scotia)?

I don’t think we have a ridiculous amount of office space…just a small downtown overall still. If we add 10k more people downtown the next few years, I’d imagine some of the office space might become attractive to renovate. And there’s lots of land to develop still. The offices aren’t in the way.
 
IanO said:
How about we make Downtown more attractive for business, investors and relocations... and fill that office space with new office tenants!

Edmonton desperately needs some corporate momentum in the core.
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This.

While converting empty commercial space is a solution for what to do with the empty space, it is a solution for the symptom and not the cause. The space is empty because Edmonton does not attract business and investment to the core. When was the last time a corporation from the suburbs or new to Edmonton selected downtown to absorb material floor space? Deep Mind and their 30 employees in 2017?

What we have sorely needed for decades is increased business investment absorbing space downtown.
 
CaptainBL said:
This.

While converting empty commercial space is a solution for what to do with the empty space, it is a solution for the symptom and not the cause. The space is empty because Edmonton does not attract business and investment to the core. When was the last time a corporation from the suburbs or new to Edmonton selected downtown to absorb material floor space? Deep Mind and their 30 employees in 2017?

What we have sorely needed for decades is increased business investment absorbing space downtown.
Click to expand...
May not be a popular opinion, or the correct one, but our recent city councils really haven't been gung-ho on attracting investment or new companies.. They're more concerned with transit (LRT&Bike lanes), which is ok, but you have to have a mix of things to make Edmonton become more than what it is.
 
SW corner of 99 Ave and Bellamy Hill has been sitting vacant for years now. I'm almost convinced that Alldritt owns this land.

20220921_191444.jpg
 
CaptainBL said:
This.

While converting empty commercial space is a solution for what to do with the empty space, it is a solution for the symptom and not the cause. The space is empty because Edmonton does not attract business and investment to the core. When was the last time a corporation from the suburbs or new to Edmonton selected downtown to absorb material floor space? Deep Mind and their 30 employees in 2017?

What we have sorely needed for decades is increased business investment absorbing space downtown.
Click to expand...
I do wonder if given the current course of a lot of big Canadian cities becoming more and more unaffordable for young folks to live in (especially around the core) that if we'd see more companies opening offices here to take advantage of the cheap office space and affordable accommodations for their workforce, but I suspect things need to get a lot worse before any thinking of that kind occurs.
 
^That has been said or mused about before. Edmonton certainly provides an affordable option for living with high wages. However, if we don't have the lifestyle people want, it still won't matter much. We have world-class suburbs, education system, rec facilities, roads, amenities. You wouldn't necessarily move here thought for an urban experience, and that might be a barrier for some young people. For family life, it's a no brainer, excellent choices when it comes to housing, etc.
 
I think the reality is that Edmonton can be quite urban especially in the core and around the valley. People perceptions are quite different from the reality though. So the question we should be looking to answer is, how do we change their perceptions?
 
bodsbods9090 said:
May not be a popular opinion, or the correct one, but our recent city councils really haven't been gung-ho on attracting investment or new companies.. They're more concerned with transit (LRT&Bike lanes), which is ok, but you have to have a mix of things to make Edmonton become more than what it is.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree about councils not focused enough on attracting investment or new companies although the funding of Edmonton Global and additional money put into YEG airport has been attracting some investment. However, the comment about more concerned with transit and bike lanes I do disagree with. We're a city growing to 2 million in maybe 30 years - how do we want to move people around now and then and connect neighbourhoods and people? How do we want to enhance livability, sustainability and affordability not to mention public health? More roads? No thanks. Full steam ahead on more liveable streets and multi-modal transportation options please.
 
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