Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer
And the fact is most of the tenants are vacating other buildings.
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This had to happen - you weren't going to see lower net income revenue type businesses in the suburbs move from the suburbs straight to the most brand new and premium building downtown - that wouldn't happen anywhere. These now vacant buildings can now charge lower leases for the older quality that they are, or raise prices but be better at incentivizing suburban businesses to move downtown. I knew quite a few people working in Saskatoon Square and it was an aweful building to work in - very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter. It may have looked (kinda?) pretty but there are nicer buildings in the suburbs for cheaper leases.
For the suburban offices that can be downtown - the issue is incentives and pitching the opportunity to be downtown - something our local developers fail at. Most of our local developers seem to be aligned with the North Saskatoon Business Association which seems to be anti-downtown progress based on their comments about downtown active transportation and pro north downtown business each and every way possible. Putting logos of a World Trade Center in Stonebridge and at Prairieland Park is a great example of how our local developers have very unaligned views with the future of our downtown compared to the majority of jurisdictions in North America.
I would argue at least 10-20% of suburban businesses could move downtown tomorrow which is a huge number - they just need the incentives to be pushed, and the de-incentivizers like the NSBA to straight up stay in the North or whatever they represent and leave the downtown planning to the downtown businesses that don't fund the NSBA.
https://saskedge.ca/a-solution-to-yx...ancy%EF%BB%BF/