IanO
Senior Member
Is APEGA leaving Rice Howard Way Place with their new 37k in Commerce South?!?!?
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Downtown Real Estate
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
Is APEGA leaving Rice Howard Way Place with their new 37k in Commerce South?!?!?
CaptainBL
Active Member
Yes they are. Employees were surveyed about staying downtown and overwhelmingly the survey responses indicated that employees did not feel safe downtown and did not want to be downtown.
Notable was that the downtown Calgary Apega office received the same survey and there was a stark difference between the results in Edmonton and Calgary. As such, Apega's Edmonton office will be moving at the end of its lease next year.
northlands
Senior Member
Doesn't surprise me. I don't think any of my coworkers like working downtown either, especially after the last couple years.
Frankly, I'm even shocked Fluor took space downtown in ATB and not in an office park somewhere in the east side like Twin Atria given it's for the DOW project in Fort Sask. Must have been an incredibly cheap sublease with numerous different options for expansion included.
David A
Senior Member
I suspect it probably also came down to money. I think they were a long term tenant, so I wonder if the building owners took them for granted, that is sometimes why long term tenants leave.
Yes, there are safety issues, but that is exacerbated by the situation that Edmonton has long had a very suburban culture, dismissive of downtown, as you can see from some of posts here and which I feel is related to being a branch plant city. Where as Calgary seems to take more pride in their downtonwn and having offices located downtown, we tend to ignore our downtown and treat it as our dump for social problems
IanO
Senior Member
I'd bet that it might have been a lower lease rate to be honest, but your second comment holds true.
MisterSartorial
New Member
I'm hearing rumours that a lot of residential conversion is planned downtown but hanging on city making a decision about a subsidy similar to what other cities have announced. Apparently it's caught up in budget planning. Might see a lot of announcements if the city can make it happen. Something I'll be watching for.
Avenuer
Senior Member
The thing with office conversions here is that it is already happening without any COE funding:
Last 5 years:
- Enbridge Tower (Peak Tower)
- Centre West (Capital Apartments)
- Harley Court (e11even)
- Financial Building (100 House)
More than 5 years ago
- New Cambridge Lofts
- Liberty on Jasper
- Executive Lofts
- Ellis Building
- Courtyard by Marriot
- The Ten
- The Madison
The COE provided a grant back in 2000 for some conversions but unsure how much was provided then. I do not think a new program will be created for conversions, as the market is already taking care of it, for the most part.
Greenspace
Senior Member
CWB is moving to Manulife Place.
stockhouse.com
2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB | Press Release | Canadian Western Bank
(2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB) CWB national headquarters moving to Edmonton's Manulife Place
stockhouse.com
David A
Senior Member
In my opinion I feel it would be better for the city just to give an incentive to build more housing downtown and let the market decide whether office conversion or building something new makes more sense.
I believe unlike elsewhere a lot of the properties better suited for conversion here have already been done in the past, so much of the remaining smaller older empty office space is not that easy to convert and the residential space resulting will not be very suitable or desirable. So we should just not copy what other places have done.
Avenuer
Senior Member
Big news, unfortunate to hear the ICE tower isn't moving ahead, but interesting that ICE District Properties seemed to be the group to make the decision. More interestingly:CWB is moving to Manulife Place.
2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB | Press Release | Canadian Western Bank
(2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB) CWB national headquarters moving to Edmonton's Manulife Place
Tim Shipton, Executive Vice President, ICE District Properties, added, "ICE District Properties and CWB remain strong financial partners, mutually committed to the City of Edmonton. We are grateful to CWB for its understanding, and we remain committed to building upon the foundation that ICE District has created in our downtown. We will have more to share in the near future."
So, I wonder what will be shared in the near future, another possiblity for an office tower there or going back to the original rental tower proposal?
Avenuer
Senior Member
With Manulife Filling up big time, the press release sounds like the rumored podium renovations will be moving forward finally. I hope that is true. Naming rights to CWB will be weird at first, since the tower has always been called 'Manulife Place' for the last 40 years.
Gronk!
Senior Member
Personally I wouldn't mind the "Manulife Place" disappearing due to the bad blood that has existed between Manulife and this city for the last 40 years.
Greenspace
Senior Member
Rental tower, suite hotel or 3.5 star hotel would be ideal on Connect podium imo.
David A
Senior Member
Wasn't there some provincial incentive or impetus to build that new tower in ICE District? I wonder if that fell through.CWB is moving to Manulife Place.
2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB | Press Release | Canadian Western Bank
(2023-10-19 | TSX:CWB) CWB national headquarters moving to Edmonton's Manulife Place
Although, overall this is not bad news, as we really don't need more office space right now and CWB can fill, at least some, of all the vacant main floor space in Manulife with a bank branch.
Also, I always thought that having such a premier building named after an insurance company that does not have a huge presence or office in Edmonton did not make that much sense, so this will resolve that too.
bodsbods9090
Active Member
If Winnipeg can get an Alt Hotel, surely we can, right...RIGHT?!?!??!!