Economy Thread

[jammer139]

Four years in a row of plus $1 billion in construction for London.


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...annual-routine

[Spoofy]

.

[ldoto]

New Porsche dealership
There’s a new Porsche dealership and a new Volkswagen dealership Being built right now on Warrencliffe Rd South I just drove by it today and seen the signs. The Porsche dealership looks pretty big!!! Kitty corner to home hardware!!!

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ldoto

New Porsche dealership
There’s a new Porsche dealership and a new Volkswagen dealership Being built right now on Warrencliffe Rd South I just drove by it today and seen the signs. The Porsche dealership looks pretty big!!! Kitty corner to home hardware!!!

Volvo, not VW. Moving from up the road. Porsche is moving down here from Oxford and Wonderland.

[ldoto]

Do you know if we’re getting a Tesla dealer anytime

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ldoto

Do you know if we’re getting a Tesla dealer anytime

I commented on the other thread. Probably not a big enough topic to carry on 2 conversations in 2 threads.

[ldoto]

Whatever!!!

[haljackey]

London CMA grew 2.3% in 2018-19, tieing it for the second highest growing CMA in the country

https://london.ctvnews.ca/london-sec...k&_gsc=QgqT0VY

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dail...m?CMP=mstatcan

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dail.../t001a-eng.htm

[ldoto]

Yes I seen that great news for London!!!!

[ssiguy]

London benefits from, although soaring, still relatively affordable real estate and rentals which makes it a draw. It is still within comfortable distance of all the amenities offered by Toronto without being in it's growing urban blob. The economy has also been doing well as unemployment is below both the provincial and nation level but very importantly this has happened at the same time as participation rates in London has moved up significantly.

There is also another benefit that London enjoys but is often ignored...………...a high quality of life. London is an attractive and likeable city and has a good reputation across the country as being exactly that. That means a lot to people looking to move to a new city and London also benefits from being, unlike Kitchener or even Hamilton, being a regional centre. It offers far more educational, health, social, governmental, entertainment, shopping, restaurants, and urban experience than either of those 2 cities due to them being more Toronto outer suburbs than anything else.

Being an attractive, likeable, livable, and safe city with a good reputation is not only good for the citizens but also pays real economic benefits.

[Djeffery]

Via Rail shutdown indefinitely. CN Rail is also shutting down, but I don't know what that timeline is. They said it would be an "orderly shutdown to facilitate an orderly return to operations". Wonder what the larger economic damage to the local economy is going to be from this. I know of one company that just laid off a bunch of people because their product is stuck on the rails coming in from the ports.

[jammer139]

Interesting article on the $1 trillion economy impact of pandemic. Implications for urban downtown's and office areas.



Remote Work Is Killing the Hidden Trillion-Dollar Office Economy

https://marker.medium.com/remote-wor...y-5800af06b007

[jammer139]

Labatts Brewery to add Corona and Stella to production.


https://lfpress.com/business/local-b...tois-in-london

[haljackey]

I am curious if they will just can these.

The Labatt brewery is down to one bottling line and both Corona and Stella use unique bottles. It just wouldn't be the same sticking a lime in the brown bottles used for stuff like Labatt 50.

[jammer139]

Interesting article on the explosive growth of online and warehousing. Does London benefit from this having a Airport and being at the centre of SW Ontario?


https://www.theverge.com/21611862/sa...int-warehouses


Hamilton has had some success with air freight and distribution centres.

[haljackey]

Hamilton is closer to a big population centre (Greater Toronto) and the general remoteness of it's airport means land nearby is cheap and thus attractive for this kind of business.

I don't think London is in a good location for centralized warehousing, which is why we never really had much of this kind of business in the past.

The new airport cargo terminal might help with some smaller distribution management, but not something like a Amazon Fulfillment centre.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Interesting article on the explosive growth of online and warehousing. Does London benefit from this having a Airport and being at the centre of SW Ontario?


https://www.theverge.com/21611862/sa...int-warehouses


Hamilton has had some success with air freight and distribution centres.

London has always been huge for distribution centres. We might be missing out on the high profile ones like Amazon (we will have one within 5 years, no doubt in my mind. For sure we will have an Amazon delivery depot by next fall though). But we have large distribution centres here for places like

Stihl Power Equipment
Echo Power equipment
Columbia Sportswear
Orgill (supplier to hardware stores)
Trudell Healthcare
Jones Healthcare
Parts Canada
National Tire

Even such local players like HMMS. They started out as a warehouse for St Joe's hospital decades ago and now have 4 warehouses in east London supplying dozens of hospitals across SW Ontario. There are also countless niche market operations that don't necessarily generate enough cash flow to be in Toronto but have no problem being in a cheap market like London and still be able to reach half the country's population via overnight courier.

London's airport won't threaten an airport like Hamilton for cargo, simply because of geography. We do get a fair amount of cargo flights to supply Cami and Toyota, but nothing like the courier flights coming in to Hamilton.

[jammer139]

Office vacancies have troubled future - https://londonincmagazine.ca/2021/01...mic-reckoning/

[haljackey]

Not unique to London but London may have a more troubled time vs other cities.

I haven't been to my office desk since March. The only time I was downtown was for a walk in Vic Park checking out the Christmas lights.

I predict it may take till 2030 for the office sector to get back to 2020 occupancy levels (pre-Covid). Many businesses learned that people can work from home permanently. For my job as an example, I'm expecting a return to the office optional, and only needed when there are meetings that I'm being asked to attend in-person. I may be there only 1-2 days a week but who knows for sure.

As a result, the need for office space post-pandemic is going to plummet. People like me won't need their own desks anymore. I can just set up shop at a generic workstation whenever I'm there.

Expect current companies to downsize their office space in the future whenever their terms need to be renegotiated. As an example, an office that takes up 3 floors may only need 2 of them going forward. That means there will be excess supply without any new construction.

The only new major tenant the downtown may see is a new provincial office, and that could change post-Covid. They could fit into a larger office building that has shed some of it's current rental units.

[ssiguy]

^^^ I tend to disagree.

The smaller markets will probably be less hit by remote working due to their much lower lease rates. This means that the amount saved per-worker by not having them take up office space is significantly less than the expensive markets. Also daycare costs are much higher especially in Tor/Van which relatively adds to more savings for the workers themselves. Parking rates and transit costs are also much more expensive than in smaller centres which again means the savings from working at home are less than the big cities. Tor/Van also suffer from very high cost housing and remote working allows for the workers to move further afield to find more affordable accommodation. As far as the quality of life benefits, the commuting times in the big cities are far longer, stressful, and more expensive as opposed to smaller ones even with London's traffic.

The benefits of remote-working are far greater in the big cities than smaller ones and hence I think it will be the big cities that hit the hardest and especially Toronto & Vancouver. The exception will probably be Montreal due to having shorter commute times than the other 2, still affordable inner-city housing, more affordable transit, and the lowest daycare costs in the country.

Certainly all cities will feel the pain but Tor/Van much more so because for both the businesses and workers in those cities, remote working offers the most benefits.