Office building activity has been relatively sluggish since 2007, even as Toronto and other major Canadian cities have continued to build, but this all looks set to change.
Reports from the city suggest that a number of major new construction projects are now expected to get started as developers aim to take advantage of the strong demand for rented office space and relatively low vacancy rates.
Among the buildings along the road to construction are a tower designed as the new headquarters of the TELUS communications company, which will be a 24-storey development on the main Vancouver peninsula.
Raymond Louie, a local city councillor, told the Globe and Mail newspaper: “The [TELUS] application shows a strong confidence in the direction this council has been taking for business.”
Meanwhile, Oxford Properties, among other major investors, is seeking the right opportunities to make the most of the resurgence in commercial real estate that is already well underway in what is one of Canada’s most prosperous cities.
Oxford Properties recently agreed on a deal that will see it work with British Land on the development of a 47-storey skyscraper in the City of London, with 610,000 sq ft of prime office space set to be made available as a result.
Editor’s notes: The development became known as the TELUS Garden mixed-use scheme and was completed in September 2015.
TELUS’ headquarters office comprises 9 floors of space of the 24-storey office tower that sits within the one million square foot scheme that takes up a downtown city block.
The scheme that was created by TELUS and Westbank also includes a 53-storey residential tower and can be found at 510 West Georgia Street.