The Ultimate Vancouver Rumour Thread!

[golog]

Originally Posted by vanlaw

Didn't Telus just move into a nice new building in Toronto?

They did consolidate 15 GTA sites into 1 in the last year.
http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...w-office-tower http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Tower

60% of 780k sq ft and 30fl is 468k sq ft and 20fl. The Toronto tower lease is for 15 years, developer says "gross annual occupancy cost" is $55 / sq ft. link.
Could the development for a whole block, 2 x 600' tower be financed in Vancouver based on likely rents?

If they have a long term lease on the boot, and have been there since 1985, they're at the 25 year mark now. A project for 2 tall towers to be built in phases might take 5 + 5 years. The boot's lease might be up in 5-10 years, so they could consolidate Edmonton and Vancouver in phase I. Toronto employees could move into phase 2, at which point they would have to sublease/pay a penalty/or their lease would be up.

Anyone know why they would propose this project? Beyond local amenities, beyond considering geographic location in terms of long term expansion... I would have to guess that converting that site which they own, which must be worth a lot, from RE to cash would earn the executives good bonuses. They probably figure they can get more money for it by doing the development/sale/leaseback, and any other benefits to locating in Vancouver would just be gravy.

[vanman]

^That's what I was wondering. If they plan on consolidating all of their offices and building a new HQ in Vancouver than what was the point in building this:


Confused Telus Building by Rob Burke, on Flickr

[golog]

Originally Posted by vanman

^That's what I was wondering. If they plan on consolidating all of their offices and building a new HQ in Vancouver than what was the point in building this:

In the article I read, Telus didn't build it. A developer named Menkes took the initiative without tenants lined up, it completed at a time when Toronto was flush with new vacant CRE, and then Telus signed a 15 year lease for 60% of it.

p.s.
using Avison Young Metro Vancouver CRE Report
pg3: downtown Vancouver, AAA class
assuming $40 psf, 1mn sq ft, and 6% cap rate -- healthy but reasonable guesses although no consideration of vacancy, retail usage, density credits, lower occupancy costs, or possible tax efficiencies -- that would yield 40 * 1mn / 0.06 = $667mn in financing
at $50 psf, that's only $883mn which is probably a solid upper limit of what's possible

is that enough money to build something like this?

[phesto]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Let me predict this, an office tower will be built, Telus will be the name on it, the tower will not intrude into any view cone but it will be ~575K sqft making it one of the largest office towers in the city and the largest as far space goes of all the proposals on the table. No inside info...

I missed this post. This would make sense...put the office component on Georgia and maybe a residential component on the Telus parkade corner. You wouldn't even need to buy the Kingston or the Easypark corner...

The good thing about a prediction is that it sounds different from substantiating a rumour!

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by golog

If they have a long term lease on the boot, and have been there since 1985, they're at the 25 year mark now.

The lease would have started when the Boot was sold (within the past 10 years, can't recall when).

I recall reading that when Telus and BC Tel merged, the then president wanted the head office in the newly renovated William Farrell Building so that it was an easy walk to work from the West End.

[jsbertram]

I was initially confused by talk of the parkade on Richards, but then I remembered there are actually two: The Impark at Richards / Robson, and the EasyPark at Richards / Georgia. In between these two parkades is the Kingston Hotel, and the attached Kingston Taphouse.

It would be quite a project to replace either or both of these parkades with new office towers, but its a strange situation to have the Kingston sitting there and making the redevelopment of the block so much harder.


Also on that block is the Whitespot at Seymour / Georgia. I've always wondered why such a short building was put on such a prime corner. I can see Telus trying to get that site & the EasyPark site & redevelop that section of the block as Phase I. Then move staff into the new tower(s) from the Seymour buildings, and redevelop the rest of the Seymour side of the block as Phase II.


An issue that may be problematic is I think the current Telus site on Seymour is the central phone exchange switching office for all of downtown. Redeveloping the Seymour side of the block would likely require building an entirely new phone exchange somewhere else downtown before the old phone exchange can be knocked over.

Didn't Telus just spend $millions$ retrofitting that Seymour building to survive The Big One?

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by vanman

^That's what I was wondering. If they plan on consolidating all of their offices and building a new HQ in Vancouver than what was the point in building this:


Confused Telus Building by Rob Burke, on Flickr

Telus didnt build that building, like 99% of commercial developments it was built by a developer and telus leased space in it and paid for the logo at the top.

Bell is in a brand new building here and their logo is on top, but its not their building and i certainly dont think there are any rumours of Bell moving to Vancouver.

There is also a telus building in Edmonton, Calgary Montreal etc... its a somewhat necessary branding move for a national player like telus. Toronto in fact was one of the few cities in Canada that did not previously have a "Telus Building"

[officedweller]

There was a small building with the Telus logo at 11 King West.

http://www.emporis.com/application/?...d=132902&lng=3

[vanman]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Telus didnt build that building, like 99% of commercial developments it was built by a developer and telus leased space in it and paid for the logo at the top.

Bell is in a brand new building here and their logo is on top, but its not their building and i certainly dont think there are any rumours of Bell moving to Vancouver.

There is also a telus building in Edmonton, Calgary Montreal etc... its a somewhat necessary branding move for a national player like telus. Toronto in fact was one of the few cities in Canada that did not previously have a "Telus Building"

Ah I see. I mistakenly thought Telus actually built that building.

[s211]

Telus making big announcement next week. Invites were sent out a short while ago.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by s211

Telus making big announcement next week. Invites were sent out a short while ago.

The brand new 700' Telus Tower. Yes!!

[jlousa]

I'd look at the Telus thread to get an idea of what the announcement looks like. The only difference will be to the podium.

[logan5]

Balloon deflate.

[Coldrsx]

... Lots of talk about it around how "ground breaking" it will be.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

... Lots of talk about it around how "ground breaking" it will be.

If it's anything like that render .... can it even be called "ground breaking?" It would have been ground breaking indeed .... back in 1965 or so.

[Metro-One]

Maybe in the new render there is a guy with a shovel in the corner breaking some ground, so therefore the new render is ground breaking

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Maybe in the new render there is a guy with a shovel in the corner breaking some ground, so therefore the new render is ground breaking

Right on !! Good one !! (probably accurate, too)

[djh]

Couple of interesting tidbits:

- Just had a conversation with a retailer in Cambie Village. Supposedly, the White Spot block (Cambie/12th-Cambie/13th) was recently bought by a developer, including the empty lot & occasional car park next to it. The plan is to bulldoze the whole block and build a residential development - I'm assuming with retail on the ground floor. I'm hoping it'll be something like Olive (Cambie/16th).

- Another block seems to be gearing up for prospective development. All of the tenants on the block on Cambie/14th-Cambie/15th (the block with Tropika on the corner) have been moved to a "0 month demolition tenancy". I think what they mean is that the landlord (who owns all of the buildings on that block) can end the tenancies and kick tenants out without any pre-warning in order to demo the block for redevelopment. Apparently there are no plans in at city hall at the moment to do so, but it sounds like there is obviously a plan for the block. Perhaps it makes the block more attractive to prospective buyers if they know they can kick out all the tenants without having to wait-out a contract.

[officedweller]

Makes sense that the development would start closer to the Broadway Station first.

Given that the White Spot site is across from City Hall, kitty corner to City Square mall and across from the Plaza 500 Hotel - I wonder / hope that the City holds out for a bit more commercial space than in your typical condo with streetfront retail (although there are houses to the east). I'll bet the City will require some open space on the corner to allow for views of City Hall from Cambie northbound.

[Sir Conga]

I can't find any info, and registered on this forum just to ask, after lurking for months. Hello.




Does anyone have details on if/when they are knocking down the Granville Rings?