Office Market Discussion - Page 10

LeftCoaster · #**181** Posted **May 26, 2015, 8:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbancanadian

- They indicated that the Yuanheng development at Broadway & Hemlock - currently a temporary Downtown Toyota dealership - will be about 200,000 sqft.

That is very large for that area. I wonder what the design will be and if any phasing will be involved.

csbvan · #**182** Posted **May 26, 2015, 9:57 PM**

Both of those proposals look fantastic. Film and tech are really making moves into the Mt. Pleasant light industrial area.

hollywoodnorth · #**183** Posted **May 27, 2015, 12:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by officedweller

Here it is - I think it's a new design by a different architect:

http://www.bozyk.com/origami.html

http://portliving.net/southcreekplaza.html

there is that one also. not sure where it is located ...

csbvan · #**184** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 4:13 PM**

Good news on the office market front:

https://www.biv.com/article/2015/7/v...ds-lasso-offi/

trofirhen · #**185** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 9:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by csbvan

Good news on the office market front:

https://www.biv.com/article/2015/7/v...ds-lasso-offi/

I wonder what the economic driving force is behind this? Which economic sector is expanding so fast?

csbvan · #**186** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 9:41 PM**

I doubt that it is one particular sector of the economy. Vancouver has never been a one sector-town. I expect growth is happening throughout the economy, which is leading to more office space being absorbed. Certainly there have been some big moves in the legal and tech sectors though. Telus Garden and the Nordstrom office portion highlight that: Miller Thomson, Bull Housser, Sony Imageworks, Microsoft and Amazon have taken up a good amount of space in those two buildings.

s211 · #**187** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 10:14 PM**

There's some hefty backfill vacancies about to hobble some buildings. I'm told that 1075 W. Georgia is on its way to becoming up to 50% vacant after losing SNC and some other tenants. Granted that 50% may be exaggerating, I don't know what the real figure is expected to be, but it's clear that 1075 is in a world of hurt.

It doesn't help that 1075 has one of the least functional floorplates downtown.

csbvan · #**188** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 10:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by s211

There's some hefty backfill vacancies about to hobble some buildings. I'm told that 1075 W. Georgia is on its way to becoming up to 50% vacant after losing SNC and some other tenants. Granted that 50% may be exaggerating, I don't know what the real figure is expected to be, but it's clear that 1075 is in a world of hurt.

It doesn't help that 1075 has one of the least functional floorplates downtown.

I know a floor that leased to a Family Law firm vacated as well, as it moved to MNP.

trofirhen · #**189** Posted **Jul 14, 2015, 10:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by csbvan

I doubt that it is one particular sector of the economy. Vancouver has never been a one sector-town. I expect growth is happening throughout the economy, which is leading to more office space being absorbed. Certainly there have been some big moves in the legal and tech sectors though. Telus Garden and the Nordstrom office portion highlight that: Miller Thomson, Bull Housser, Sony Imageworks, Microsoft and Amazon have taken up a good amount of space in those two buildings.

Nice to see such economic diversification. About time, too!

s211 · #**190** Posted **Jul 15, 2015, 2:39 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by csbvan

I know a floor that leased to a Family Law firm vacated as well, as it moved to MNP.

I've been hearing chatter about other tenants seriously looking at moving elsewhere. Such a prime corner, but such a sad building.

LeftCoaster · #**191** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 8:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Nice to see such economic diversification. About time, too!

About time?

Vancouver has been the most diverse economy of the major cities in Canada since about the mid eighties.

Just out of curiosity what did you think the dominant industry in Vancouver was? Forestry?

trofirhen · #**192** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 9:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

About time?

Vancouver has been the most diverse economy of the major cities in Canada since about the mid eighties.

Just out of curiosity what did you think the dominant industry in Vancouver was? Forestry?

More diverse even than Toronto ??
I knew the economy was far less resource-based that even 30 years ago, but I did not know it has come so far.
As such, I stand corrected, and would be interested to hear more about the economy of the city.
Also, FYI, despite the diversity of Vancouver's economy, it has half the urban GDP of Seattle, and even Portland has a larger urban GDP.

GMasterAres · #**193** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 10:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

More diverse even than Toronto ??
I knew the economy was far less resource-based that even 30 years ago, but I did not know it has come so far.
As such, I stand corrected, and would be interested to hear more about the economy of the city.
Also, FYI, despite the diversity of Vancouver's economy, it has half the urban GDP of Seattle, and even Portland has a larger urban GDP.

Yah it's difficult to compare Vancouver to Seattle or even Portland because (a) you compare in US$ and with the Canadian $ tanking it skews the numbers a bit, but also (b) the metro land area is just uncomparable.

Metro Vancouver GDP area = about 2,900 km/2
Metro Seattle GDP area = about 15,000 km/2
Metro Portland GDP area = about 17,000 km/2

Seattle also has some heavy hitters company wise all of which are giants on the World stage not just the US stage. Seattle has always fought above its weight class in the economy ring. It almost has the same GDP for the metro area as Toronto ($9 billion difference)... so it really fights in the Toronto, Miami, New Delhi, Madrid, Sydney, Frankfurt circle, not the Vancouver circle.

Portland I don't know enough about its industry and economy to comment. It seems to also strike a bit above its weight given it also has a higher GDP than Montreal and even Berlin.

So I'm not sure if comparing Vancouver to those two cities is fair just because they happen to be in closer proximity.

If you look just in Canada though we all basically where you'd expect us. 3rd large metro area, 3rd highest GDP. Toronto = 1, Montreal = 2, and the top 5 are rounded out by Calgary and Edmonton.

trofirhen · #**194** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 10:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhausner

Yah it's difficult to compare Vancouver to Seattle or even Portland .......

Seattle also has some heavy hitters company wise all of which are giants on the World stage not just the US stage. Seattle has always fought above its weight class in the economy ring. It almost has the same GDP for the metro area as Toronto ($9 billion difference)... so it really fights in the Toronto, Miami, New Delhi, Madrid, Sydney, Frankfurt circle, not the Vancouver circle..........

Yes. Agreed. Why, then, does it (Seattle) get left out of those city rankings where Vancouver comes in 15th (and Dallas and Houston don't even show???!!!) That, is a puzzlement

LeftCoaster · #**195** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 10:40 PM**

Which city rankings?

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

More diverse even than Toronto ??

Well yes I would very much think so. What is the dominant industry in Toronto? that's easy, finance.

What is the dominant industry in Vancouver? Well that's much tougher. One could make a strong point for finance, mining, technology, trade and logistics (the port), tourism... the list goes on. It's a jack of all trades kinda town and that comes with it's pros and cons too. The highs are never as high as somewhere like Calgary, but it is also largely insulated from the lows that more concentrated places deal with.

GMasterAres · #**196** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 10:47 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Yes. Agreed. Why, then, does it (Seattle) get left out of those city rankings where Vancouver comes in 15th (and Dallas and Houston don't even show???!!!) That, is a puzzlement

What city rankings? You mean the rankings like most livable or most lovable or most full of themselves?

Unfortunately those rankings have nothing to do with the economy typically and I don't put much faith in them when to me a livable city doesn't have some of the highest housing prices or cost of living on the planet. Those are also subjective on how they define Vancouver. They focus on Vancouver itself and ignore all the other cities around, whereas the other "cities" Vancouver is compared to get their metro-areas thrown into it. So Vancouver has a bit of an unfair advantage in some ways.

"When we want to look pretty we'll ignore Coquitlam and Surrey and Langley and such.. but when we want to look wealthy we'll include West Vancouver and White Rock and Richmond and such..."

Personally I think if you plucked Vancouver off the Earth and plunked it down in the middle of Saskatchewan (and not on the ocean with beautiful mountains everywhere and great weather), it wouldn't crack the top 100 on those same rankings.

I only give stock on actual numbers not feelings and touchy feely rankings.

GMasterAres · #**197** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 10:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

Which city rankings?

Well yes I would very much think so. What is the dominant industry in Toronto? that's easy, finance.

What is the dominant industry in Vancouver? Well that's much tougher. One could make a strong point for finance, mining, technology, trade and logistics (the port), tourism... the list goes on. It's a jack of all trades kinda town and that comes with it's pros and cons too. The highs are never as high as somewhere like Calgary, but it is also largely insulated from the lows that more concentrated places deal with.

Lows... like Calgary... lol very true. When you focus on an industry you can do very very well or very very poor. Not often you are just average. Vancouver is always just average because it has a diverse economy and that makes it safe, but ultimately still just average. Average isn't always a bad thing though it can be a really good thing. Our Sun is a pretty awesome star from the perspective of us Earthlings, but in the grand scheme of the Universe it is pretty average which is AOK by me because i'm here to post on this thread because of it.

trofirhen · #**198** Posted **Jul 17, 2015, 11:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhausner

What city rankings? You mean the rankings like most livable or most lovable or most full of themselves?
Personally I think if you plucked Vancouver off the Earth and plunked it down in the middle of Saskatchewan (and not on the ocean with beautiful mountains everywhere and great weather), it wouldn't crack the top 100 on those same rankings...............................

......... I only give stock on actual numbers not feelings and touchy feely rankings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city
We've all seen this chart before, but looking at the categories, either Vancouver beats out Seattle, or is on a list where Seattle is not, (unless both cities are excluded.)

As for Seattle ranking up there with Toronto, Frankfurt, Sydney .... ? ... look again!!

Alpine · #**199** Posted **Sep 20, 2015, 6:33 AM**

There was a BIV article from August that said office vacancies downtown are now at 10% (highest rate since 2004) and future developments like Burrard Place and Ormidale Block are at risk of being scrapped.

What does everyone think? Should I be worried?

https://www.biv.com/article/2015/8/s...office-towers/

Millennium2002 · #**200** Posted **Sep 20, 2015, 12:39 PM**

I speculate that companies still want to move in but are finding it difficult (if not impossible) to also bring in foreign and national expertise cheaply enough given the (too) hot residential property market...

The projects that are done or close to being done will probably still finish on schedule, but unless it's infill or something small, anything beyond that will probably have to wait for better market conditions.