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Office Space Conversions

rdaner said:
This G&M article suggests that the City is going to abandon its office replacement policy.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Toronto planners mull allowing more office to residential conversions

Eliminating the strict replacement policy would provide a route to transforming underused and vacant buildings into much-needed housing
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
Click to expand...

That's not what the article suggests.

Its also rather unlikely as a wholesale policy change.

And not desirable.

The City's current approach is correct, site by site, considering the merits of the application.

They've been very fair to applicants and they've empowered their planners in a way not seen in a very long time to exercise independent judgement. I like it!
 
rdaner said:
www.theglobeandmail.com

Opinion: Commercial real estate is in a growing crisis that seems to have no end

A new report by Trepp Inc shows a significant jump in U.S. office loan modifications, as more office space owners extend their loans
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
Click to expand...

Not terribly insightful, though not inaccurate either, on a large scale.

But I don't see a massive contraction in class A space in Downtown Toronto.........

Rather, I see a contraction of B and C level space, some in downtown, more in the inner and outer burbs.

Much of the latter is not suited to 'conversion', but wholesale raising of some 'employment lands for residential' is already underway {see Mr. Christie lands)......suburban office parks will soon follow.
 
rdaner said:
I found this interesting. On the London thread of SSP it is being said that an office building at 376 Richmond Street has been sold by court order to a numbered company. It is a smaller structure that will most likely be torn down and developed as residential. I wonder if this is going to become more common as the residential market heats up?
Click to expand...
Heats up? Sure seems to me that the residential market has cooled off dramatically, especially pre-construction.
 
Jonny5 said:
The Wall Street Journal covering this in Calgary today

Click to expand...

Seems like desperation ... I hope Toronto never gets to that point unless they're mandating affordable housing to go along with the conversion.

I'm not sure why anyone would harrold that as a model to copy. Maybe the thought is they do it enough it get's traction and then can start to decrease the supplement they're providing.

The only other thing potentially at play - I'm not sure if they have property tax rebates for "empty buildings" - and they're thinking if they convert to residential they get more tax. If so fair enough.
 
taal said:
Seems like desperation ... I hope Toronto never gets to that point unless they're mandating affordable housing to go along with the conversion.

I'm not sure why anyone would harrold that as a model to copy. Maybe the thought is they do it enough it get's traction and then can start to decrease the supplement they're providing.

The only other thing potentially at play - I'm not sure if they have property tax rebates for "empty buildings" - and they're thinking if they convert to residential they get more tax. If so fair enough.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with Calgary, but I know people from there who told me that Calgary's business district definitely was overbuilt in the 2010's and also there was a swath with near-zero residential, so it had some stretches of several blocks much like Toronto's financial district did in the 1990's where after 7:00 p.m. it was a ghost town with totally empty sidewalks and no commercial business open. It looks like maybe a geography issue amplifies that in Calgary as the rivers and the railway corridor make the business district there a kind of island, and having it totally empty out each night, aside from an occasional Flames game, was not very good land use.
 
Jonny5 said:
I'm not familiar with Calgary, but I know people from there who told me that Calgary's business district definitely was overbuilt in the 2010's and also there was a swath with near-zero residential, so it had some stretches of several blocks much like Toronto's financial district did in the 1990's where after 7:00 p.m. it was a ghost town with totally empty sidewalks and no commercial business open. It looks like maybe a geography issue amplifies that in Calgary as the rivers and the railway corridor make the business district there a kind of island, and having it totally empty out each night, aside from an occasional Flames game, was not very good land use.
Click to expand...

This is correct.

Calgary's downtown is/was primarily commercial with very low residential. Been that way for a very long time. I remember being in Calgary............more than 30 years ago, and touring the downtown on a weekend, and it was a ghost town. Clean, orderly, modern......but empty.

Its added a bit of residential since........but there's room for a lot more.
 
This is a CofA application to convert unused commercial space in a 2s Main Street building on Bloor. It would be interesting to find out how many of these are happening and where.

I know that some will disagree but the conversion of use on such a small-scale shouldn’t require an application but should be automatic.

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IMG_3776.jpeg
 
Office tower owners ‘aggressively’ trying to off-load Toronto buildings — possibly leading to conversions and demolitions
www.thestar.com

Office tower owners ‘aggressively’ trying to off-load Toronto buildings — possibly leading to conversions and demolitions

Buildings could be converted to residential, but the costs are significant, experts say, and it may be more effective to tear down and redevelop.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

While few buyers are interested in taking on office space, if it’s the right price they may choose to convert the building for other use. According to CBRE’s first quarter report, since 2021 office-to-residential conversion projects in Canada make up the majority of conversion activity at more than 56 per cent, followed by industrial at 14.6 per cent, education at 8.3 per cent, hotel at 6.2 per cent and life science at 5 per cent.
Click to expand...
 
Apparently a bill to really simplify the conversion of office space to residential was just defeated at QP. The government is vague as to why but many are crying foul as they see this as protecting specific companies from competition. More later.
 
christiesplits said:
Office tower owners ‘aggressively’ trying to off-load Toronto buildings — possibly leading to conversions and demolitions
www.thestar.com

Office tower owners ‘aggressively’ trying to off-load Toronto buildings — possibly leading to conversions and demolitions

Buildings could be converted to residential, but the costs are significant, experts say, and it may be more effective to tear down and redevelop.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com
Click to expand...
Yeah, the mid-size pensions that invest in the big real estate funds, like Greystone which owns a lot of "B class" office towers in Toronto that are more suited for conversion, are all agitating for the managers to speed up selling off assets so they can get money back that they actually need to pay benefits, or to annuitize a part of or the whole pension plan. Greystone is apparently still working through redemption requests made two to three years ago as they didn't want to start a fire sale and lower the value of all their other assets, but I think investors' patience is running out and they are saying "just do it, we need the cash and we need it now."
 
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