Hey Regina, what could you possibly need all that office space for?
 

The last time I was in Regina I was struck by not only the size of the office towers there but the volume. Given that capital city's tend to be more government-focused (thus less business-focused), one would think there wouldn't be very many office towers, or that they would be pretty small, yet the opposite is true. I am from Victoria which is half again the size of Regina and is arguably the business center for Vancouver Island (population about 750,000) yet it doesn't have one office building over twelve stories and only three buildings over ten stories. Regina has thirteen office towers over thirteen stories so my question is, what could you possibly need all that office space for?

FYI, Regina is only about 200,000 people in size. Therefore Victoria is nearly double the size of Regina, I believe.

Tough question to answer, in which I don't have a specific answer. I think in large part is it's due to the fact that Regina has done well in ensuring that the downtown remains as the major area of employment. Approximately 85% of jobs are apparently located downtown (let me check the specifics of this number). I don't think there's any other Canadian municipalities that have been as successful in this regard.

Well, Regina has the lowest office vacancy rate in Canada. Second, Regina also has infinitely more prowess in Saskatchewan than Victoria does in B.C. with regards to the need for offices located in a centralish location [Saskatoon is similar]. Thirdly, in B.C., Vancouver is clearly the primate city ---- for obvious reasons. Fourth, the economic bases of Regina and Victoria are vastly different. Lastly, Victoria --- really --- is not in a convenient location; even though it is a beautiful city !!! :tup: 'been there, done that. ;)

CCF's comment has a lot to do with it; the downtown area is quite dense. When you have so many office-jobs in such a condensed area (something around 1 km x 0.6 km), the only option is to have some towers.

But along with CCF's statement, I would say the other big part is that Saskatchewan has far more large crown corporations than BC, and they are located in Regina for the most part (with some regional offices being in Saskatoon and other cities/towns). BC by comparison has one of its largest crown corps (ICBC) headquartered in Vancouver? Vancouver was almost always the "prime" city in BC though wasn't it?

Saskatchewan crown corps; Sasktel, Saskpower, Saskenergy, and SGI are the big ones; have a large amount of office space centralized in downtown Regina. Regina also has the headquarters for a few fairly large private companies (Viterra and Co-operators Life). Granted, Viterra has quite a bit of its upper management in Calgary I believe (much like the situation with Potash Corp in Saskatoon has with Chicago... although that one's supposed to be changing).

Another huge part has to come down to one family. The Hills. (Although the McCallums were involved as well). They were behind the development of I'm sure over half of the towers downtown, although I could be wrong; I don't know the exact proportion. Downtown Regina was in every respect the hub of the city for a long time... until recently when the "shopping hub" has somewhat shifted, although the main mall is still downtown.

Possibly due to the office density downtown and probably partially due to the centrality of it, a lot of hotels set up shop downtown, and a few decided to build large ones (Ramada, Delta, Regina Inn), which although doesn't add to the office aspect of your question, definitely pushes the feeling of density.

So that in a nutshell is my opinion on why Regina is the way it is...

Good analysis by Nathan. I would just add FCC to the list as they are in major head office expansion mode. The Canada Life office is also significant. Back in the 70's and 80's the big banks all had regional offices in Regina that took up multiple floors in their namesake towers. These offices along with the Crowns also attracted large accounting firms and law firms to service them. In B.C. the banks and professional firms would have all had their main offices in Vancouver.

The bank regional offices have all gone but their buildings remain and have gradually been absorbed by other offices and residential conversions.

This warrants a thread?

A thread dedicated to how awesome Regina's downtown is? Ya, I like it.


Also, don't forget our largest shopping district is downtown, the only good pubs are downtown, and the club district is just outside of downtown.


And companies like Mosaic getting new office space downtown will only help development.

...and don't forget the brand new stadium that is going to be built right beside downtown. ;)

I thought of mentioning FCC (Federal Crown Corp) and Conexus (A fairly large credit union based in Saskatchewan), but ended up skipping them... The additional info in parentheses was for Phil... I'm gonna assume you knew that.

He's curious about the history for Regina's skyline/downtown and reasons behind its size... I'd say this is a fairly good use of a thread... Doesn't really fit in Regina construction... and this thread hasn't been done before... so why not?

That number seems awfully high - maybe just office jobs? If I'm not mistaken, about 75,000 of Winnipeg's 350,000 or so employees work downtown (just over 20%), which itself is generally considered above average...

Regardles of the exact numbers though, Regina's skyline definitely hits above its weight class...

The figure is actually 85% of office space I believe, not necessarily 85% of jobs.

Oh yah, Regina kicks some serious ass in this regard

This warrants a post?

Thanks for all the info guys.

Also worth mentioning is that Regina appears to be adhering to a policy of trying to limit office development to within the downtown core. As I recall, the recent application to construct a significant amount of lowrise office space in Harbour Landing was not approved by the City and there will be an appeal initiated.

I was at the inaurgral Saskatchewan Real Estate Forum in Saskatoon on Tuesday and this issue came up for discussion among one of the panels. Not surprisingly, there was a split among the panelists, with some strongly supporting it and others believing that developers/tenants should have the right to construct suburban office complexes with ample surface parking.

The Forum itself was a great success. It sold out, with over 460 attendees gathering to discuss a number of issues impacting commercial real estate and development in Saskatchewan. Lots of out of province attendees and pretty much everyone has a very positive attitude about developing projects in Saskatchewan. Although the land costs are relatively low here, the cost of construction is making Saskatchewan the most expensive place in Canada for many of them to build, so that is a cause for concern.

I may be wrong i dont recall the harbour landing office complex going to council yet

It might have gone already and been denied but I'm not sure. It looks like it will be discussed by the City Council on May 30. Whether these are new plans, I'm not sure: http://www.regina.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did=6793

I believe this means it was denied or at least deferred?

as it relates to the Downtown Plan.

Yep.

Was deferred back to the Admin.

This project should NOT be approved. Office space of this magnitude should not be outside downtown. If we are to allow suburban office, further works needs to be completed to identify areas where it would make sense. A nodes and corridors approach would make the most sense, with suburban office allowed to be located along streets like Broad, Albert, Victoria (the corridors) and concentrated at critical intersections that could handle higher density such as the Golden Mile (the nodes).

A location at Harbour Landing makes no sense. It is not well served by transit and truly there are no logistical reasons to allow it.

You only have to look to Ontario to see this gross generalization in work. Big business avoids Toronto like the plague? Victoria dose not have large offices in part because it lives in the shadow of Vancouver. Regina can stand strong on its own in it's region.