102 Street Centre | 160.93m | 32s | Hines | Pickard Chilton

[Daveography]

@chrisvazquez7 No wider than Manulife (if turned 90 degrees) or KR for that matter. There would be plenty of space in the footprint of the old Bay building for another tower, but that said, the likelihood of a tower going up on that property is pretty low, and I imagine the desire for one is even lower.

 

[Daveography]

Good news for downtown overall, just bad news for anything changing with this building.

New lease deal offers hope that 700 DynaLife lab workers will stay downtown
Edmonton’s major downtown DynaLife health lab has signed a new lease to March 2022, giving hope to those who want its 700 downtown employees to stay put.

“It’s great news and will give everyone time for sober second thought,” said Coun. Scott McKeen, a vocal opponent of a provincial plan to create a new super lab facility outside of downtown.

Edmonton needs continued investment in downtown, not a flight from the centre, he said, suggesting the province supported that approach in years past.

“There’s been a lot of work done on this and it seems to have been forgotten,” he added, before council’s executive committee voted to work with downtown landlords on a new business retention and reinvestment strategy and lobby the province to stay.

Alberta Health has said it wants to build a new super lab with research capacity to replace the DynaLife labs currently operating out of Manulife 2. Spokesman Brent Wittmeier promised more information on that within weeks.

DynaLife chief executive Jason Pincock said the new lease simply covers the gap until a new facility can be constructed. But if the province decides not to invest in a new building outside downtown, the existing facility will serve for at least the next decade, he said.

“We already have a super lab; it’s right in the middle of downtown now,” Pincock said, adding there’s lots of nearby vacant office space where he could move administrative staff to expand the lab when necessary.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...t-700-dynalife-lab-workers-will-stay-downtown

 

[MichaelC]

Really hope this one goes up sometime in the next 10years, it's a major gap filler

 

[Daveography]

@MichaelC I agree, would love to see this one happen when the office market picks up again.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[archited]

Just my opinion... the office market is dissembling and likely will remain in that state for the foreseeable future. Employees are finding ways to work at home as efficiently (likely more efficiently) with internet, Skype, etc. than they can by trudging to a workplace (good for traffic congestion; bad for personal camaraderie and fellow-relationships). The socio-economic sphere is in a state of flux, both for commercial and retail wannabe employees. I am going to suggest that this office building will never be built as originally planned. There are possibilities, but the model for office design needs to be overhauled first.

 

[Daveography]

@archited Disagree, that shift really hasn't happened as quickly as many imagined, and many businesses still retain space for a large number of employees even when many are expected or encouraged to work from home (e.g., ATB).

Couple that with further conversion of older office space to residential uses, and I think we'll see another upswing pretty soon.

 

[archited]

You may be right @Daveography, but I would expect a more conservative approach to this site with, perhaps, a mixed use building, considering that the project is supported by equity funds (assuming that the investment originally scheduled for here hasn't gone elsewhere). The site is prime, no doubt. Here's a thought -- perhaps Katz was trying to sell the office building that he is seeing stretch to become the tallest building in the City, hoping to attract this particular equity fund buyer (very secure building with a proven income for many years out) and picking up this site in the process. It would be a very smart move and he would have a new site that could be mixed use with another hotel (that market remains rich for Edmonton), an office component, retail, and condominiums. I really suspect that the original design is dead.

 

[IanO]

CONCEPT ONLY

102 Street Centre Redevelopment | Arc Studio

The 102 Street Centre redevelopment was a concept design exploration into evolving the existing Manulife Phase 2 tower podium into a large single-tenant office space incorporating additional floor area and new rooftop amenities.

www.arcstudio.ca

 

[Avenuer]

If only... Would be nice to turn that bunker of a building inside out.

 

[JNO1]

^Amen to that.