Quote:
Originally Posted by ns_kid
I'm thrilled that Southwest is demonstrating such confidence in the downtown residential market. And, seriously, I will seriously consider becoming one of their tenants. I do see a certain irony in Mr. Laing's remarks, however. For as these residential complexes move to downtown, they are supplanting the very workplaces to which he refers. The Maple replaces six floors of office space; the Ralston next door, 10 floors, will be vacated and likely demolished; the Roy, and the Royal Bank building are other examples. New office space is being constructed and on the drawing board of course but there's no doubt that many business tenants continue to leave downtown for the suburbs. To maintain the viability of the downtown core it will be critical to maintain a good balance between commercial and residential space.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
It's also good to keep some older, more affordable office buildings around so that the downtown can support a wider range of tenants. This doesn't seem to be happening. In Halifax, the same few blocks have been redeveloped again and again since the 1800's for the city's prime office buildings.
This particular project is great though. I think the bigger local population will make a big difference to Barrington Street, both in terms of vibrancy from the new foot traffic and from the increased demand for shops and services.
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Guys, guys, guys. There is plenty of office space around. Nothing is being displaced. We're already at record commercial and office space vacancy rates, it'll hit even higher historical vacancy levels again when TD & Commerce Square developments finish and go online.
We're *finally* getting some quality dense residential downtown, and we're lamenting some crappy vacant office spaces?
We need MORE residential. More. More. More. Commercial will come once you have residential population in there, as will retail. Businesses go where the people are. But it doesn't always work the other way; as we've seen and learned.
We don't need any more 1970s style office spaces downtown, plenty of which seem to be vacant right now, because they cost far too much compared to brand new, nice, office space being built out in the sprawl parks. Rather, we need brand new Triple A class office / commercial space to attract anchor tenants. When that happens, the 70's style space will reduce in price, attracting different kinds of businesses into those spaces.
Residential begins a happy cycle. But when you lose density and population-- as the peninsula has since the 1950's-- you begin an unhappy cycle of decline. Finally, residential may turn that cycle around.
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