Quote:
Originally Posted by Truenorth00
The private sector was priced out of the core, forced to compete with the federal government for office space. Also, a good chunk of Ottawa's tech sector is hardware companies or defence industrial companies who need the space. That mix is changing over time and as they feds cut back, downtown rates drop attracting new tenants.
Shopify still have space downtown (234 Laurier). They just don't need a building anymore that houses a thousand employees. And that building itself is moving on to other clients, even some coworking space, which is fine for generating foot traffic. I expect a lot of downtown offices, including some of the Public Service to eventually become co-working and swing spaces like this.
There's undoubtedly going to be pain in the short term. It's kinda deserved. The city should never have let the feds turn downturn into a PS office ghetto. Now we are paying the price. It'll work out eventually.
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You’re talking as if downtown Ottawa had some vibrant private sector that was driven out by the Feds. I don’t think there is a lot of evidence of this. You might get the odd startup picking up cheap office space (although if you are correct and the private sector wants to WFH indefinitely then I am not sure why these startups would want a lot of office space).
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