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Downtown Real Estate

David A said:
It seems to me that lots of adults in Edmonton have been having serious conversations about all our downtown problems for the last several years.

I am not sure how seriously our governments have been listening and if the actions they have been taking have been effective enough.
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For the last several years???

Try for the last several decades. They - and their administrations - listen but it rarely leads to effective action albeit I'm sure there are rooms full of various reports and recommendations that get done and then never come off the shelf again.
 
For lease on 105 St north of 105 Ave

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105 St north of 105 Ave - please redevelop this into a funky mid-rise or high-rise that includes a hotel.

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IanO said:
www.linkedin.com

Edmonton’s downtown is struggling — and remote work is not the only culprit

The fate of Jasper Avenue reflects a larger challenge: if Canadians want thriving city centres, they must choose to support them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com
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I keep on saying that here in Edmonton there also was an economic slowdown or downturn from about 2015 to 2021 that hit our downtown hard, so yes it wasn't just work from home or COVID.

The article also refers to Ottawa, which I think didn't have that downturn, but there is talk now of reducing the Federal public service so they may be affected by that in the future similar to how we were in the past.

Of course, there were also public safety and disorder issues that happened not just here but in other cities around the time of COVID which have also hurt our and other downtowns a lot.
 
David A said:
I keep on saying that here in Edmonton there also was an economic slowdown or downturn from about 2015 to 2021 that hit our downtown hard, so yes it wasn't just work from home or COVID.

The article also refers to Ottawa, which I think didn't have that downturn, but there is talk now of reducing the Federal public service so they may be affected by that in the future similar to how we were in the past.

Of course, there were also public safety and disorder issues that happened not just here but in other cities around the time of COVID which have also hurt our and other downtowns a lot.
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One of the commenters on that article said the following:

Said it before, and I’ll say it again, but if the justification for return to office is keeping restaurants in business, we‘ve got it all wrong.

Working from wherever makes sense, and leaving that to the judgement of grown adults is far better. Work from home? Get lunch in the neighbourhood. Or work from anywhere and have more diversity for coffee, beer, lunch, meetings etc.

Good places will always thrive, as they become places people go to. The sad fact is a lot of hospitality is just not that good.

What cities need to do is make doing business easier. Rates and permitting is far more important to focus on. The time to take a lease, do renos and get opened is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurial renewal!
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All so true. I've supported more places in my neighbourhood during and after the pandemic than I ever did downtown, many of which are better than the options downtown.

I'd also rather go to Rge Rd than many of the options downtown. We just don't have a great culinary scene in general, let alone downtown.

ECC has been a slow march downward that started well before the pandemic. The pandemic was just the final nail so to speak. Whatever the other side looks like for ECC, I hope the new owners consider how to enable more people living downtown, which will either mean conversion and/or demolition or both. Just as it took decades for ECC to die, its going to be a while before it recovers, too. Anyone hoping for a fix tomorrow or even next year is a hopeless optimist. While I hope we have optimists in our downtown community, I also hope we have realists that see the long term big picture of where downtown needs to go and how to get there. Ending hybrid in the public sector isn't going to do it and if we think that is the solution, then yikes, our downtown is in for a rough ride for years to come.
 
For me it's about the heart of your city argument, what WE want to communicate to investors, how we welcome tourists and what we desire to become as a city.
 
The WFH argument shouldn’t be about downtown vibrancy. It should be about productivity for companies and organizations. Some can effectively manage that remotely, others benefit from in person.

For every story of returb to office just being zoom calls in cubicles, I can also speak to WFH friends that are on socials, Netflix, etc all day.

And this doesn’t speak to all government employees, but it’s my friends in GOA, WCB, COE jobs that most proudly share this while friends at EY, Jobber, and Law firms certainly aren’t getting away with that stuff.

I think it’s the nature of the work. If outcomes and success are easily tracked, or individual contributions are easily seen on company success, then it’s easier to be remote. But larger orgs and more bureaucracy help bad employees hide. Being in office at least forces them to hate their job if they’re going to be lazy.

You only have to sit in university lectures to watch kids on laptops to understand what low accountability, digital distraction, and non motivated people leads to.
 
IanO said:
For me it's about the heart of your city argument, what WE want to communicate to investors, how we welcome tourists and what we desire to become as a city.
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Imagine how transformational it could be if AB put the tens of millions of dollars this will cost (at minimum) toward the student housing accelerator and other residential incentives, and/or incentives to get more private businesses moving to downtown. It's big bucks we're talking here, so I think it's a shame to spend all of it just to get back to where we were, instead of where we could be.
 
thommyjo said:
The WFH argument shouldn’t be about downtown vibrancy. It should be about productivity for companies and organizations. Some can effectively manage that remotely, others benefit from in person.

For every story of returb to office just being zoom calls in cubicles, I can also speak to WFH friends that are on socials, Netflix, etc all day.

And this doesn’t speak to all government employees, but it’s my friends in GOA, WCB, COE jobs that most proudly share this while friends at EY, Jobber, and Law firms certainly aren’t getting away with that stuff.

I think it’s the nature of the work. If outcomes and success are easily tracked, or individual contributions are easily seen on company success, then it’s easier to be remote. But larger orgs and more bureaucracy help bad employees hide. Being in office at least forces them to hate their job if they’re going to be lazy.

You only have to sit in university lectures to watch kids on laptops to understand what low accountability, digital distraction, and non motivated people leads to.
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I mean, lazy people were lazy before WFH was ever a thing. They sat on their cell phone or took longer breaks, or whatever. Hell, there used to be a temp we had that would watch Netflix all day. I know plenty of lazy people in tech who do the bare minimum. Perhaps they are efficient with their time when they are working, but they only do what is required, then do whatever they want that isn't work-related. It is a common misconception and generalization that only the public sector employs lazy workers. I assume you work in the private sector for a company that doesn't allow you to be lazy? That is good that they do that, but it's a problem across the board.
 
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