[Top Of The Park]

After nearly 25 years, downtown Denver is set to gain a number of mid-rise and possibly one or two tall office buildings. Since the oil-shale meltdown of the early 80's left Denver with many empty or half empty skyscrapers, only a couple of government buildings and a newspaper headquarters have been added to the approximate 27 million square feet of office space. Even the Denver Tech Center added more office space and has just about equal the square footage of downtown. The downtown vacancy rate is down to 8.2% and rents are going up. Oil shale is rearing it's head again and downtown has many condo developments ongoing.

I am wondering if Denver's trend is a national one? I know office buildings have been built in Chicago (naturally) and a nice sized building in Mobile Alabama.

[Jularc]

New York City is still building office towers (and for a long time since the boom of the 80's). And more are still to come.

[fflint]

SF is building an office tower on spec right now. It's only 34 stories or so, but still--it's been a while.

[mhays]

Downtown Seattle had office booms in the late 80s and late 90s. Since the 90s we slowed for a bit but there have always been projects underway. During the slow period we got WaMu Center (2006, 42, 598'), IDX Tower (2003, 34, 535'), and the federal courthouse (2004, 23, 390') as well as smaller buildings like 5th & Bell (2002), Fifth & Jackson (2002), and the Tommy Bahama HQ (2003). Also, Starbucks was converting chunks of the historic Sears warehouse into headquarters offices, totaling the equivalent of a major tower. (My numbers are guesses in some cases.)

Seattle booms at the end of every decade. This decade is no exception. We currently have 3,300,000 sf of office space under construction Downtown. Plus six biotech, hospital, and public buildings which would bring the office/institutional total to 4,000,000 sf underway. The tallest current office projects are 1918 8th Ave (35, 500') and West 8th (28, 393').

It's a busy time for development. We have 750 hotel rooms underway, which will bring us to about 11,650 rooms within 1 mile of the core CBD, or about 1.3 miles from the convention center. In the same area we have over 3,000 housing units underway, a bit down from a year ago but still pretty good.

In terms of what drives office space, lately headquarters are a big part of it. Amazon, Starbucks, WaMu, Expeditors, Nordstrom, Unionbay, Tommy Bahama, F5 Networks, Group Health, NBBJ, Rosetta Inpharmatics, and IDX are companies that have either built their own headquarters or preleased buildings that were then built in the last decade and/or currently. Also, we've gotten some big leases for existing space by companies moving from the suburbs or other neighborhoods into Downtown, like Safeco and Corbis.

[Cirrus]

Office construction in downtown DC never really stops. Never anything taller than about 12 floors, though.

[Steely Dan]

Chicago's recent downtown highrise office building construction:

name use struct. ht. roof ht. floors year
recently completed:

111 South Wacker Drive (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=169011) office 681 ft ... .. 51 2005
Hyatt Center (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=148153) office 679 ft 678 ft 48 2005
UBS Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100401) office 651 ft ... .. 50 2001
Citadel Center (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100407) office 580 ft ... .. 39 2003
1 South Dearborn (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=168984) office 571 ft ... .. 40 2005
191 North Wacker Drive (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100432) office 516 ft ... .. 37 2002
ABN AMRO Plaza I (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100418) office 453 ft ... .. 29 2003
550 West Jackson (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100403) office 276 ft ... .. 18 2000
550 west Adams (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=101491) office 262 ft ... .. 19 2006
Dearborn Plaza (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=117622) office/hotel 261 ft ... .. 17 2000
Quaker Plaza (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100402) office 260 ft ... .. 17 2002
Congress Center (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100425) office 258 ft ... .. 17 2001
Union Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116850) office 252 ft ... .. 18 1999
550 West Washington (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116742) office 244 ft ... .. 17 2000
CTA Center (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=169700) office 191 ft ... .. 12 2004







under construction:

300 North Lasalle (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=102149) office 785 ft ... .. 60 2009
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116823]Blue Cross-Blue Shield (][/url)** office 743 ft ... .. 57 2009
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=244405]155 North Wacker (][/url) office 638 ft ... .. 48 2009
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=101484]353 North Clark (][/url) office 624 ft ... .. 44 2009
CBS 2 Broadcast Center (][/url) - TO office 276 ft ... .. 17 2008




“TO” indicates that the building has been topped out
italics indicate that the building began construction in 2008






proposed:

[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=]200 North Riverside Plaza (][/url) office 700 ft ... .. 50 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=212040]601 West Monroe (][/url) office 620 ft 594 ft 42 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=238151]29-39 South Lasalle (][/url) office ~620 ft ... .. 51 ____


[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=244928]222 West Randolph (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 50 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=233855]Madison West 645 Tower I (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 32 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=312265]Wacker Plaza (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 31 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=102132]ABN AMRO Plaza II (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 30 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=233856]Madison West 645 Tower II (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 22 ____
[url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=222613]120 North Jefferson (][/url) office ___ ft ... .. 16 ____ [url=]


color code:
red = over 1,000 ft
magenta = 700 - 999 ft
purple = 600 - 699 ft
blue = 500 - 599 ft
green = 400 - 499 ft
brown = 300 - 399 ft
Black = under 300 ft or unknown


Notes:

** - Blue Cross-Blue Shield is an existing office tower that currently stands 411 ft./32 floors tall. The tower was designed to accommodate a significant vertical addition. Current plans call for a 25 story addition which would take the tower to a total of 57 floors.

[Top Of The Park]

...I'd like to see Denver emulate, naturally without the water (darn). Besides the office space and residential, I love the market and the department stores. Both have good convention centers and hotels nearby, bus systems, light rail and downtown stadiums. Its good to hear about additional office space.

[LivingIn622]

Detroit has office development still going on. Just not too much of it. Quicken will be building within two years. So far Detroit has no office towers going up this year. But in the past few years, downtown got some. Kennedy square 2006, Compuware 2005.

[Shasta]

Downtown Houston is doing well with office tower growth.

U/C

11 story Pavilions Tower
46 story Main Place (630 feet)

Ground Breaking in next 2 months, site clearing now

31 story Discovery Tower (around 460 feet)
29 story 6 Houston Center (around 415 feet)

Proposed

35 to 42 story tower at 1500 Smith Street
major tower for the Gateway Tract in Allen Center
Hine's involvement with another block on Main Street (rumored 60+ story)

Completed in last 5/6 years

40 story 1500 Louisiana Street (600 feet)
36 story Reliant Energy Plaza (518 feet)
34 story 717 Texas Avenye (453 feet)
27 story 5 Houston Center (376 feet)

However, much to my dismay, it's the Energy Corridor/Westchase area in far West Houston (city proper but very suburban) that is really booming. There are proposals, recently completed, and bldgs under construction that are 35 stories, 14 stories, 12 stories, 12 stories, 8 stories, 22 stories, 19 stories, twin 17 stories, twin 16 stories, 14 stories, 13 stories, and 12 stories tall.

[ltsmotorsport]

Hell, even Sacramento is building an office tower downtown on spec. If Sacramento can do it, than anyone can.

[plinko]

After near constant construction from 1962 onward, I can't think of a single office tower completed in downtown LA after 1992, with the exception of the 1995 HQ for the local transit authority and the 1994 Royball Federal Courthouse (both public funds).

Downtown Glendale got a big office tower in 1997 (spec), Century City got Constellation Place in 2002 (spec). El Segundo got a federal office building in 2000 (public).

Nothing major (in terms of tall office buildings) after 1992 in the OC, Long Beach, Santa Monica, West LA, SFV, SGV, Inland Empire.

Hard to believe that those four make up everything in greater LA? I'm talking 15+ stories here...

[miketoronto]

The lack of downtown office construction since the 1990's, is a real issue all our downtowns have faced.
And the economy is such an excuse it is not funny. I say this because the suburbs have been adding office space like crazy while our downtowns have sat by.

Toronto is finally getting some office construction after nearly 15 years of almost nothing.

[rsbear]

Portland has one all-office (but with retail on first floor) building under construction (First & Main - 16 floors); one mixed-use (retail, office, housing) tower under construction (ZGF Tower - 22 floors) and one mixed-use (retail, office, housing) tower slated for construction in March (Park Avenue West - 33 floors) in the downtown core. Another all-office tower (about 25 floors) is slated for construction just across the river in the Rose Quarter and there is a least one mixed use (office & retail) building under construction in the Pearl District.

[volguus zildrohar]

Center City Philadelphia added about 2 million RSF of office space over the past three years (namely Comcast Center & Cira Centre). There are several spec projects, some moderately big, some very big, in the air now as downtown vacancy is at its lowest level in 15 years.

Much of what was vacant or obsolete office space was gobbled up in the condo boom. The top 20 floors of Two Liberty Place were converted into condominiums as were entire moderately sized office buildings which, with the addition of the two new towers, gives Philadelphia as much office space now as it had a decade ago. There was one major renovaton and one small office building added to downtown's profile between the Trophy Tower boom of the 80s/90s and Cira Centre's opening. It also helps that companies are beginning to relocate workers from suburban office parks to Center City. Unisys and Verizon moved over 1,000 employees between them to Center City.

[Austinlee]

All you growing cities make me sick...

[mhays]

Don't worry. Pittsburgh is in the top third of US cities in terms of coolness. Love it.

[WilliamTheArtist]

New office towers in Tulsa?... after losing around 30,000 jobs and most of our oil companies leaving for Houston earlier this decade, Thats a resounding no. lol.

However the newer edge areas within the city and the suburbs have been shelling out office parks. You know the kind, the ones that look like little "Villages" of 2 and 3 story brick and stone buildings built around a "square" like area. So remarkably there has been some growth. Also many of the old abandoned buildings downtown are slowly being turned into lofts and condos. It could easily be another 15 years till we see any new downtown office space. I think our vacancy rate downtown is around 16%.

After seeing the devistation of having so many office dwellers and companies leave downtown, I frankly dont care if any more office buildings are built there. Having a downtown that was basically just a huge office park didn't work on soooo many levels. Getting more people to live there, not just commute in then out, is more important right now for Tulsa. Also we have a new college and an old one expanding downtown as well. I want to see them continue to expand. Having ten or twenty thousand college students in the area would help with revitalization efforts.

[mind field]

Downtown Seattle had office booms in the late 80s and late 90s. Since the 90s we slowed for a bit but there have always been projects underway. During the slow period we got WaMu Center (2006, 42, 598'), IDX Tower (2003, 34, 535'), and the federal courthouse (2004, 23, 390') as well as smaller buildings like 5th & Bell (2002), Fifth & Jackson (2002), and the Tommy Bahama HQ (2003). Also, Starbucks was converting chunks of the historic Sears warehouse into headquarters offices, totaling the equivalent of a major tower. (My numbers are guesses in some cases.)

Seattle booms at the end of every decade. This decade is no exception. We currently have 3,300,000 sf of office space under construction Downtown. Plus six biotech, hospital, and public buildings which would bring the office/institutional total to 4,000,000 sf underway. The tallest current office projects are 1918 8th Ave (35, 500') and West 8th (28, 393').

It's a busy time for development. We have 750 hotel rooms underway, which will bring us to about 11,650 rooms within 1 mile of the core CBD, or about 1.3 miles from the convention center. In the same area we have over 3,000 housing units underway, a bit down from a year ago but still pretty good.

In terms of what drives office space, lately headquarters are a big part of it. Amazon, Starbucks, WaMu, Expeditors, Nordstrom, Unionbay, Tommy Bahama, F5 Networks, Group Health, NBBJ, Rosetta Inpharmatics, and IDX are companies that have either built their own headquarters or preleased buildings that were then built in the last decade and/or currently. Also, we've gotten some big leases for existing space by companies moving from the suburbs or other neighborhoods into Downtown, like Safeco and Corbis.


Most Impressive.


Detroit has office development still going on. Just not too much of it. Quicken will be building within two years. So far Detroit has no office towers going up this year. But in the past few years, downtown got some. Kennedy square 2006, Compuware 2005.



The trend has definitely reversed in the last decade for downtown office space. Instead of companies leaving downtown, they are coming in, finding the fledgling renaissance and downtown's urban ammenities desirable. Rumors of Bank of America and EPrize relocating to downtown Detroit from the suburbs circulate in the local media. Quicken is tentatively moving downtown. I would hardly call the 10 story One Kennedy Square building a "tower".

[miketoronto]

The trend in the 90's was not good. I don't have stats for all cities. But I know Philly went from something like having over half of metro office downtown, to having less then 25% as of 2000.

[brickell]

Miami currently has two office towers under construction downtown. Just had one completed, added a new federal courthouse and has added thousands of sq ft of office space as part of mixed use developments. There's another proposal, One Bayfront Plaza, for what would be Miami's tallest and mostly office space, but it's not schedule to come online till much later.

I'm pretty sure some of the other submarkets are adding more space though, especially Coral Gables.

[themapman]

Dallas is fluctuating...depends on how you define downtown Dallas...the traditional CBD (bounded by the freeways) is growing slowly, but definitely heading up, and Uptown is booming with office development. But residential development far outpaces office right now here.

[WonderlandPark]

I think Plinko basically got it right, LA metro isn't really building much office space, for nearly 15 years now, nothing really that big outside of the MGM building in Century City (34 st.) and Unum Provident in Glendale (25 st.) Pretty pathetic for one of the world's largest metros.

That 500' office tower in Santa Ana that went though all those votes and fights appears dead for now (drove through there a couple of weeks ago, site is cleared except for a house that has been there a year and a half). That was the biggest commercial tower that had any chance recently.

[mhays]

Do you mean no highrises, or nothing at all? I'd expect that there would be tens of millions of square feet built somewhere in the LA area in the past decade. Even if much of it is in Riverside, Thousand Oaks, etc.

[MolsonExport]

Where is the "Case"?

[Top Of The Park]

Where is the "Case"?

in a box...a square box, for all the square boxy office buildings. Or just drink a case of molson's and you'll see the case...an empty one.

[plinko]

Do you mean no highrises, or nothing at all? I'd expect that there would be tens of millions of square feet built somewhere in the LA area in the past decade. Even if much of it is in Riverside, Thousand Oaks, etc.

Oh there was, but nothing tall and rarely interesting. The world of tilt-ups so to speak. Santa Clarita, the Irvine/Mission Viejo corridor, Ontario, Culver City and a few others...

One of the building disadvantages LA had is that there already were tens of millions SF of light industrial and aircraft buildings that were gradually converted.

Since 1992, there have been a substantial number of residential mid and high rises built all across the metro.

In a sense, LA was in an overbuilt condition in 1992 that is just recently been rectified (there are office building proposals for DTLA currently, but the economy is holding things up). While Greater LA has certainly sprawled since 92, it has also densified substantially all across the basin.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

^all valid and correct points. The LA Office market, at over 350 million square feet is finally seeing vacancies reduced and there are tight markets all over. Burbank, Pasadena, Hollywood all below 10% vacancies, and all are seeing some sort of office construction, all be it in the midrise to low rise fashion. Downtown LA is finally recovering from all the mergers of the 90's and vacancies have dropped from near 25 % to about 12% right now, with positive absorption the last 7 out of 8 quarters. there are a few proposals, with the Maguire tower the tallest and having the best chance, along with metropolis phase 4, Grand Ave Phase 3 and thats about it. I think we will see more soon if the economy can recover fairly quickly.

[LordMandeep]

the market is getting tight and its around 3-4% and there are 3 major office towers U/C and about 4-5 more in the pipe line...

[mhays]

I'd hope for more than tilt-ups! Presumably there have also been a lot of midrises.

[Evergrey]

Downtown Pittsburgh has 320,000 sq. ft. of office space under construction (as part of a 752,000 sq. ft. mixed-use tower). Downtown had a net absorption of 536,000 sq. ft. in 2007.

[John R]

There are several office buildings under construction in downtown Fort Worth, but none are major additions to our skyline. Our office vacancy rate is quite low, but there haven't been any developers willing to construct a major building. The tallest office building under construction is 16 stories, and the rest are significantly shorter, with a 7 story, and several four story buildings being built. We are getting one major addition to the skyline with the new 604 room Omni Hotel. Rising out of the hotel tower, is a residential condominium building. City Tower, is a 16 story retirement residence being constructed on downtown's west side.

[The Chemist]

Calgary currently has the following office buildings U/C:
1. The Bow - 236m, 58 stories
2. Eigth Avenue Place - 211m, 51 stories
3. Jaimeson Place - 176m, 38 stories
4. Centennial Place - 170m, 40 stories; ~100m, 23 stories

Plus a few smaller towers in the 10-20 storey range. In other words, downtown is BOOMING in office construction.

[Top Of The Park]

Calgary currently has the following office buildings U/C:
1. The Bow - 236m, 58 stories
2. Eigth Avenue Place - 211m, 51 stories
3. Jaimeson Place - 176m, 38 stories
4. Centennial Place - 170m, 40 stories; ~100m, 23 stories

Plus a few smaller towers in the 10-20 storey range. In other words, downtown is BOOMING in office construction.

Is energy driving the need in Calgary? How well is the prospect of oil shale production being considered in Canada?

[ctman987]

Hartford, Connecticut is not seeing any office construction and will probably not see any for some time. Right now construction on the city is focused on residential, retail, hotel and educational. Hartford saw a lot of construction of office space in 1980's but thankfully some projects for huge towers downtown were never built.

Right now Hartford must fight fiercly to keep companies downtown. There is still comeptition with suburbs where there is lots of new office space. ING Life Insurance & Annuity Company left the city for new digs in the burbs as did the local CBS affiliate WFSB. Henkel Loctite has its North American headquarters in the burbs as does Alstom and many more.

Although there are still companies that remain in the city, companies that continue to expand in the city and new companies that relocate in the city. Travelers, AETNA, The Hartford, Phoenix all take up tons of office space in the city and recently Soverign Banks Western New England's office relocated back from the burbs and GlobeOp opened up a Hartford office.

[ctman987]

Also this might be intersting for this thread....


GTECH a leading gaming technology and services company recently relocated from the Providence, Rhode Island suburbs to a new downtown office tower. The 12 story building houses 500 GTECH employees, has ground level retail space and sits right across from the Providence Place Mall, RI Convention Center and Westin Hotel & Residences

[The Chemist]

Is energy driving the need in Calgary? How well is the prospect of oil shale production being considered in Canada?


Yes, Calgary's current boom is most certainly energy related. For example, The Bow, which will be the new tallest building in Calgary when completed in 2011, is being built for one of the largest energy companies in Canada, if not North America. And other office space is being primarily occupied by energy companies.

Oil shale production isn't even on the radar in Canada, as far as I know. And I don't see any reason it should be, considering that oil sands are the big business these days, and we have a lot of those.

[MitchCPC]

I remember when I first drove through Los Angeles at about 11 PM in about 5 years ago I remember thinking ... this is it? Granted it's a huge city but as far as downtown goes I always had pictured in my head something about half the size of NYC I was dead wrong.

[MolsonExport]

in a box...a square box, for all the square boxy office buildings. Or just drink a case of molson's and you'll see the case...an empty one.


If it is a big case (24 bottles) I may not even see once finished!

[shreddog]

Calgary currently has the following office buildings U/C:
1. The Bow - 236m, 58 stories
2. Eigth Avenue Place - 211m, 51 stories
3. Jaimeson Place - 176m, 38 stories
4. Centennial Place - 170m, 40 stories; ~100m, 23 stories

Plus a few smaller towers in the 10-20 storey range. In other words, downtown is BOOMING in office construction.
Right there is over 7 million square feet of new office space under construction in downtown Calgary.

FYI, current inventory of dt space is roughly 34 M sq feet, so we're seeing an increase to inventory of about 20%. Also, outside of the dt, there is another 4 M sq ft u/c.

[Top Of The Park]

If it is a big case (24 bottles) I may not even see once finished!

I'd drink half of them, but only if it was "blackened voodoo lager" from New Orleans

[bryson662001]

I remember when I first drove through Los Angeles at about 11 PM in about 5 years ago I remember thinking ... this is it? Granted it's a huge city but as far as downtown goes I always had pictured in my head something about half the size of NYC I was dead wrong.
LA is sort of unique that way in the US. "Downtown" isn't the center of anything the way it is in other cities. It's just another neighborhood, one of hundreds that make up a city with many downtowns. I have heard it said that downtown Beverly Hills is LA's "real" downtown. That being said, I have always thought the "asparagus patch" was pretty impressive as it rears up through the smog.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Downtown Beverly Hills is pretty insignificant in terms of Office space in LA. Downtown LA has about 35-40 million square feet of office space in addition to the second largest government center in the US after DC. LA County has a total of about 350 Million from what i can recall. The westside has the most office space, but that is scattered from Century City to Westwood to West LA, Brentwood, Beverly Hills and the LAX area. Mid Wilshire, Miracle Mile (again on Wilshire), Tri cities (Burbank Glendale and Pasadena) and Hollywood make up the other major centers of office space.

[mhays]

"Second largest government center" is sort of like "second largest theater district" -- multiple cities claim it, probably making good cases based upon different definitions.

Downtown LA does seem to be a real center. It's by far the largest concentrated employment center in the CSA, and it's a local nexus for spectator sports, arts, and government. It even has a decent number of residents finally.

[tocoto]

Boston has U/C: Fan Pier 300', Russia Wharf 450', 2 Financial Center 16 stories, Filenes building 500' with an office component, SST 650'. In the pipeline: Trans National Place 1000', 888 Boylston 19 stories, seaport sq. 300', among others in the pipeline.

[mhays]

Pipeline is interesting, but proposing something is easy. The real trick is signing pre-leases, going through design, agreeing on a construction cost, and breaking ground. I didn't mention proposed buildings in Seattle for this reason.

[tayser]

It's tighter than a duck's arse (as the saying goes...) down here...

http://photoadelaide.com/JunkPile/AFR02.gif

brief outlook originally posted on SSC.

Sydney:
Vacancy rate at 18 year low: 3.7%. Driven mostly by stock being withdrawn for redevelopment (112,000sqm). Demand softening.
Net absorption in 6 months to January 18,000sqm.
Vacancy tipped to rise second half of the year.

Melbourne:
Vacancy rate 4.4%. More new office space constructed in Melbourne than any other city over the past three years. Net absorption (for year I assume, didn't specify) 103,160sqm, 3.5 times the 15 year average. 161,073sqm coming online this year, 1/3 of which is pre-committed. 159,050sqm for 2009 with 92% pre-committed!
Vacancy rate tipped to stay below 6% until at least 2010.

Brisbane:
Vacancy rate 0.7%. Didn't have too much on new supply only to say the peak in the construction cycle is still 12 months away.

Perth:
Vacancy rate 0.5%. 33,261sqm coming online this year. 2011 will see new office towers completed.

Adelaide:
Vacancy rate 4.3%. Net absorption for year to Jan 45,561sqm. 38,398 coming online in 2008.

[Top Of The Park]

those are amazingly low numbers....do you have the AA classification for prime office space?

Isn't that a platypus duck you are referring to?

[LordMandeep]

For Class A space the vacancy rate is around 2.8%

and for overall space downtown is around 3.4%

Overall across the city its around 6%.

Much better then the 90's we were around 15-20%!!!


An additional 3 million square feet of office space will be added by 2010....

[Rusty van Reddick]

Note also among all of the amazing figures for downtown office construction in Calgary: Calgary has about 4% of the nation's population, but MOST (as in more than half) of downtown office construction is happening here. On that measure Calgary has the most vibrant (defined very specifically of course) downtown in North America.

[Top Of The Park]

Note also among all of the amazing figures for downtown office construction in Calgary: Calgary has about 4% of the nation's population, but MOST (as in more than half) of downtown office construction is happening here. On that measure Calgary has the most vibrant (defined very specifically of course) downtown in North America.

Calgary is pretty amazing.....something is always getting built there, even in the years where most cities in the US had nothing being built (excepting NYC, Chicago and a few others)

[tayser]

A platypus is not a duck and a koala is not a bear TOTP ;)

"Prime" space invariably has a lower vacancy rate - B grade space is usually the class which blows vacancy rates out here as there's a lot of movement up to A grade as the A grade people move to the new Prime buildings U/C everywhere, C grade usually gets snapped up by companies wanting to move to the city. i.e the company that I work for sub-let about 1/3 of the space we have in a C grade building on Queen St to a company that moved from Melbourne's southern burbs - we've both got briefs out there for separate buildings now (as the lease is running out and there's a demo order on the building and they're not taking leases beyond 2012 as it's a prime site for a 40-50 level tower).

[miketoronto]

LA is sort of unique that way in the US. "Downtown" isn't the center of anything the way it is in other cities. It's just another neighborhood, one of hundreds that make up a city with many downtowns. I have heard it said that downtown Beverly Hills is LA's "real" downtown. That being said, I have always thought the "asparagus patch" was pretty impressive as it rears up through the smog.


I don't think LA is unique in terms of downtowns at all. Downtown LA use to THE PLACE to be. It was a very vibrant centre to the metro region, and like other cities, the downtown went into decline.
So to say that LA just functions on more then one downtown is not telling the whole story, as downtown LA was at one time a legendary place.

To me it is a big waste that LA has let Broadway crumble with all those amazing grand old theatres. Downtown Broadway in LA should be a film mecca like it once was. Instead it is not.

[mhays]

Downtown LA did decline for a while, but LA has always had multiple centers, including other centers of regionwide significance.

[The Chemist]

Calgary is pretty amazing.....something is always getting built there, even in the years where most cities in the US had nothing being built (excepting NYC, Chicago and a few others)

Not quite. The 90s were pretty lean after the completion of Canada Trust (now Toronto Dominion) Tower in 1991 until the start of Bankers Hall West Tower in 1998 - I don't think any major downtown office space was built in those 7 years.

Since then, it's been non stop for nearly a decade, with several major towers built and even more now under construction.

[miketoronto]

Calgary is a model other cities should follow concerning office development. Calgary is one of the only North American cities left, that puts focus on its downtown as the office employment hub of the region, instead of the suburbs.

[Top Of The Park]

Calgary is a model other cities should follow concerning office development. Calgary is one of the only North American cities left, that puts focus on its downtown as the office employment hub of the region, instead of the suburbs.

As far as mid-sized big cities it is leading the pack.

[bryson662001]

I don't think LA is unique in terms of downtowns at all. Downtown LA use to THE PLACE to be. It was a very vibrant centre to the metro region, and like other cities, the downtown went into decline.


That's a little before my time. (I was only born in 1949)

[Top Of The Park]

That's a little before my time. (I was only born in 1949)


Nice to see another "baby boomer" on here. There are a few of us.

[Doug]

Not quite. The 90s were pretty lean after the completion of Canada Trust (now Toronto Dominion) Tower in 1991 until the start of Bankers Hall West Tower in 1998 - I don't think any major downtown office space was built in those 7 years.

Since then, it's been non stop for nearly a decade, with several major towers built and even more now under construction.

Shaw Court (originally Shell Court) complerted in 90. The Catholic School Board tower completed in 93. Ernst and Young tower broke ground in 97 and completed in late 99. TCPL broke ground in 98.

[tocoto]

Pipeline is interesting, but proposing something is easy. The real trick is signing pre-leases, going through design, agreeing on a construction cost, and breaking ground. I didn't mention proposed buildings in Seattle for this reason.

Not to say Boston grows quickly, it's probably on the slow steady side. Somewhat unusual is that it is so hard to build in Boston that most proposals cost enough to put together that the developers are serious and most proposals get built although it might be 10+ years between a proposal and ground breaking.

[miketoronto]

This quote is the best case for downtown office space. This is from the Calgary Transit report on LRT.
http://www.calgarytransit.com/pdf/Calgarys_LRT_1st_25Years_TRB_revised.pdf

"Strategic policies have encouraged the concentration of employment in the downtown to support a high level of transit service."

[DaveofCali]

"Second largest government center" is sort of like "second largest theater district" -- multiple cities claim it, probably making good cases based upon different definitions.

L.A.'s Downtown though is the seat of the largest County in the U.S. populationwise. Thus, its reasonable to expect L.A. downtown to have the highest sqft in terms of government space (outside of D.C.). Caltrans (California's transportation authority) completed a 13 story building a few years ago that has about 750,000 sqft of office space. [/QUOTE]

[DaveofCali]

Downtown Beverly Hills is pretty insignificant in terms of Office space in LA. Downtown LA has about 35-40 million square feet of office space in addition to the second largest government center in the US after DC. LA County has a total of about 350 Million from what i can recall. The westside has the most office space, but that is scattered from Century City to Westwood to West LA, Brentwood, Beverly Hills and the LAX area. Mid Wilshire, Miracle Mile (again on Wilshire), Tri cities (Burbank Glendale and Pasadena) and Hollywood make up the other major centers of office space.

Downtown L.A. actually has about 29 to 30 million sqft of rentable office space, not including the large amount of govt. office space. There's another 30+ million sqft of office space in the corridor of smaller business districts, West of Downtown L.A. to the beach.

Century City has been building the most office space lately, with 2000 Avenue of the Stars (15 floors, 720,000 sqft) being recently completed, with the 35 story, 700,000 sqft Constellation Place office building having been completed several years ago, for a total of 1,420,000 sqft of office space being built in the past several years.

[WhipperSnapper]

On that measure Calgary has the most vibrant (defined very specifically of course) downtown in North America.

Well .... between 9 and 6

[Top Of The Park]

Well .... between 9 and 6


I don't doubt that Calgary has a ton of construction going on and that for its size, its a happening place, but skyscapers don't add up to a dynamic street scene just by themselves. Many other mid-size large cities would give Calgary a good run for that kind of designation.

That said, I want to visit Calgary and see all the exiting stuff going on.