Winnipeg Construction IX - Page 28

Urban recluse · #**541** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 2:24 PM**

^^Yes. Definitely a lot of infill needs to happen here. I like how the ad states the building can accommodate two additional floors. That would be cool, but NOT like 140 Bannatyne; that looks horrible. I would be interested in seeing the architectural drawings mentioned. Ideally, the surface lot would be replaced with an addition. This could be an amazing redevelopment.

Jeff · #**542** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 5:27 PM**

hopefully it's converted to residential. one less lower-end "c" class office building on the market. if it's tastefully done like the avenue, and with the new Richardson building kitty corner to the site pretty much, this could start something around there.

esquire · #**543** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 6:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff

hopefully it's converted to residential. one less lower-end "c" class office building off the market. if it's tastefully done like the avenue, and with the new Richardson building kitty corner to the site pretty much, this could start something around there.

Yeah, 20 years ago it would have been almost unthinkable but today that would be a pretty marketable location... stone's throw from P&M, a short walk to The Forks and St. Boniface. It's too bad about the streetscape around there though... you walk out the main doors and to the left it's nothing but barriers as if it were Berlin circa 1972, and to the right is surface lot hell.

Jeff · #**544** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 6:16 PM**

being across the street from direct access to the walkway system is a great feature as well for five months of the year...

bomberjet · #**545** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 6:16 PM**

TOD, TOD, TOD. Eastern study is to identify land use. Perfect opportunity here for something cool to come along for all the surface lots.

Urban recluse · #**546** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 6:32 PM**

Definitely a lot of work to be done in the area, but what a sweet location. I hope the surface lot is not kept.

esquire · #**547** Posted **Jul 20, 2016, 11:38 PM**

I took a walk down Broadway today... it's a pleasant place on a nice summer day but I really hope that we see some development around there. In the last 25 years I think the only aspect of the streetscape that has changed is the small Cambrian Credit Union building that went up at Broadway and Fort... beyond that it's just tenant turnover and a couple of minor renovation projects that have kept the area from being frozen in 1991.

It would be nice to see the kinds of improvements that have happened elsewhere throughout downtown happening on Broadway too.

bogdog · #**548** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 12:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilwayne

7-11 just took over spot in North end regent mcphillip and Selkirk portage

They will invest in dt

Sorry, I don't know where you mean?

jmt18325 · #**549** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 12:36 AM**

So, over in the Provincial economy thread, it came up that Winnipeg has some of the lowest office vacancy rates in the country at 9%. Looking at the stats, the vacancy rate actually went down between Q3 and Q4 2015.

Urban recluse · #**550** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 2:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I took a walk down Broadway today... it's a pleasant place on a nice summer day but I really hope that we see some development around there. In the last 25 years I think the only aspect of the streetscape that has changed is the small Cambrian Credit Union building that went up at Broadway and Fort... beyond that it's just tenant turnover and a couple of minor renovation projects that have kept the area from being frozen in 1991.

It would be nice to see the kinds of improvements that have happened elsewhere throughout downtown happening on Broadway too.

So true. Broadway is in need of some splashy new buildings, new boulevards, etc.

cheswick · #**551** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 9:57 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bogdog

Sorry, I don't know where you mean?

A new 7/11 opened at Selkirk at mcphillips (formerly petro Canada I believe).

esquire · #**552** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 3:13 PM**

Good news: According to CBRE, Winnipeg has the second lowest office vacancy rate of any major Canadian market.

Bad news: It's 9.1% and expected to increase once TNS is built and tenants shuffle over there from their current buildings.

More here: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/downtown-office-space-at-premium-387732031.html

I'd wager that tower 1 at TNS will be the last new office tower built downtown for at least 5 years. Hopefully there will be enough condo, apartment, retail and hotel development activity to keep downtown moving forward.

bomberjet · #**553** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 3:14 PM**

9.1% is the second lowest?! That's kind of shocking.

esquire · #**554** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 3:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

9.1% is the second lowest?! That's kind of shocking.

It's a mess everywhere other than Toronto. There must be entire buildings empty in Calgary.

Here are the stats with last year's number in parentheses.

Quote:

Toronto: 4.9 % (5.8 %)

Winnipeg: 9.1 % (11.1 %)

Vancouver: 9.1 % (9.7 %)

Waterloo Region, Ont.: 9.2 % (10.3 %)

Ottawa: 9.6 % (9.0 %)

Montreal: 10.4 % (10.8 %)

Edmonton: 11.5 % (9.9 %)

Halifax: 15.0 % (13.0 %)

London, Ont.: 19.1 % (14.9 %)

Calgary: 22.2 % (13 %)

bomberjet · #**555** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 3:18 PM**

Yeah, Calgary downtown has emptied out quite a bit. Seems every time I'm there someone is laying off employees or shutting down. Still looks of people and activity of course. I wonder what the vacancy rate in the Bow. Brand new building like that must have some high rental rates.

roccerfeller · #**556** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 3:52 PM**

Not to stray too OT hopefully but - ^ Yeah it's been hard in Cowtown. One of my cousins had her entire mid level oil and gas company fold clearing up multiple floors in her building downtown (mind you this is a known occurrence during downturns; new mid level companies rise during boom times)and she's had a tough time finding another job since early last year. Another one of my cousins works for a drilling company HQ'd downtown and their workforce went from 60 odd people down to 16-17, with all of them taking on additional work and further losing a work day (to prevent further layoffs)

Earlier this year the local paper (Calgary Herald) had an article about how there is a historic level of vacant office space, which at that time equated to a little more than the 3 tallest buildings in the city completely vacant. Looks like it's even worse with the >22% vacancy now.

That said, in general the city doesn't seem to have skipped a beat as there's tons of construction everywhere, including some large developments and new interchanges and the like.

It's crazy how even with such a gloomy situation downtown, there is still tons of skyscraper construction both downtown and in the belt line, east & west village areas, including a building that is even taller than the Bow (looks like it topped out recently) and another that looks to be one of the coolest and tallest office towers in the city, along with multiple residential towers and infill office towers too.

Not sure why exactly, but with the market the way it is, apparently some of these developers have lost lease agreements which means these new towers won't be as full as they would have been when construction started.

A few other projects have either died or been put on hold until the market changes, but it's predicted to get even worse before it gets better so I wouldn't be surprised if that 22.3% increases over the next year

I perhaps went a bit too OT but hopefully informative and relevant to the discussion to some degree

rrskylar · #**557** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 4:01 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Yeah, Calgary downtown has emptied out quite a bit. Seems every time I'm there someone is laying off employees or shutting down. Still looks of people and activity of course. I wonder what the vacancy rate in the Bow. Brand new building like that must have some high rental rates.

Hey the new empty tallest (Brookfield Empty Place) opens soon in Calgary!

esquire · #**558** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 4:02 PM**

^ It was like that the last time the economy went south for a prolonged period... there was a brutal recession in 1990-91 which effectively ended the late 80s building boom across Canada, but new buildings (presumably the ones already in the pipeline) kept coming on stream for a couple of years after that. I don't think many deals for new towers got done after 1991 though, because for over 5 years there was hardly any office tower development in Canada. It wasn't until around 2000 or so that we began seeing new towers go up on a significant scale.

buzzg · #**559** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 4:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by oftheMoon

I know DT is full of surface lots, but wow that building puts that area into perspective - it's an island in a sea of surface lots!

But yeah, great location and views from an inconspicuous building!

Anyone have another link to this or can explain what it was? The link is broken.

Urban recluse · #**560** Posted **Jul 21, 2016, 5:19 PM**

http://www.cushmanwakefieldwinnipeg.ca/wp-content/uploads/WPL/222/att_Portage-Avenue-138.pdf