Article here:
https://www.thespec.com/business/rea...vacancies.html
As Fruitloops didn't even make it clear, instead preferring to go on an anti-homelessness rant, the article is about office vacancies in the city.
I don't think homelessness has much to do with it. Hamilton has always been a weak office market. There is far less office space per capita than most cities of it's size, and it has always had a high vacancy rate.
Honestly, it looks like Hamilton's office market has been surprisingly resilient compared to the rest of the province through COVID. Vacancy has increased, sure, but not wildly like most major office markets. It's still lower than 2015. Toronto's vacancy rate has gone from a little over 3% to over 10% in the same timeframe.
The real problem is that most of Downtown's office space is tied up by a single, terrible landlord - Real Properties.
If an actual major professional landlord could get their hands on Jackson Square and the Stelco tower, they would probably do a much better job of actually leasing the complex up.
Basically what is happening is all the other office buildings downtown are fairly full, then Real Property's buildings all sit half-empty (literally, in the case of 110 King St W, which is 51% empty according to the article).
For those blowing me away on the parking issue downtown, it's critical for office leasing still, like it or not:
Quote:
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Cowie said if it wasn’t for Westinghouse HQ’s limited amount of parking, he could have had the entire building “leased out twice over by now.” Asa also raised issue with the lack of parking in the downtown as something that keeps companies away.
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