WSIB Head Office Moving to London

[MolsonExport]

Too bad it ain't downtown, but the silver lining is that Farhi won't benefit. Him and that stupid hat he wears.

[ssiguy]

This would be a real blow to downtown as I except the city was banking on it being there. Infact, it will make the situation of office vacancies worse as it states some of the downtown workers would go to the new facility. It would also bring 500 office workers downtown who would bring their shopping and dining dollars with them.

Also, many of these workers would have chosen to live downtown to be closer to work and have easy access to get back to Toronto friends and family by train. It also reinforces the idea to other businesses looking for space that downtown is not the place to go. If even the gov't doesn't want to be downtown then why would we?

Yes, it will bring new jobs to the city but it could end up doing more harm than good.

[jammer139]

No it's not. These new WSIB staff never worked in London in the first place. The handful of staff that were in the downtown London office have been Teleworking and Hybrid WFH since before the pandemic. The new office reality is much smaller offices and some form of WFH going forward. We are never going back to large downtown offices stuffed with cubicles and employees. Like video rental stores those days are over for many businesses.


The idea that many of the transplanted WSIB workers would choose to live in a rental or condo downtown is also unlikely. Far more likely they will choose to live in a house in east London or one of the many new bedroom subdivisions in the small towns between London and Woodstock.

Originally Posted by ssiguy

This would be a real blow to downtown as I except the city was banking on it being there. Infact, it will make the situation of office vacancies worse as it states some of the downtown workers would go to the new facility. It would also bring 500 office workers downtown who would bring their shopping and dining dollars with them.

Also, many of these workers would have chosen to live downtown to be closer to work and have easy access to get back to Toronto friends and family by train. It also reinforces the idea to other businesses looking for space that downtown is not the place to go. If even the gov't doesn't want to be downtown then why would we?

Yes, it will bring new jobs to the city but it could end up doing more harm than good.

[jammer139]

Latest LFP article on the move of WSIB HQ to London.



https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...-they-go-mayor

[MolsonExport]

As long as Downtown London hosts so many junkies and homeless people, it will be less attractive as a place to set up shop. I don't know what the solution is here, but any revival of the core depends on sharply reducing the number of junkies and vagrants on the streets.

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Article has quotes from a number of people discussing their opinions on why downtown was not chosen. The funniest being Farhi claiming it will cost WSIB more to go to the 3M site then downtown.

https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...t-for-downtown

The 3M office is also far closer to the 400 series highways than Downtown. I'm assuming that's more beneficial to them?

[jammer139]

It's official.


"WSIB and city officials announced Thursday the agency is buying the former 3M office at 300 Tartan Dr. for $21 million, where it will house 500 workers when it opens in 2025.




Article content
About 400 London WSIB workers now located downtown on Fullarton Street will relocate to Tartan Drive and the workforce will grow there, said Jaff Lang, WSIB chief executive."





https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...kers-from-core

[Djeffery]

Well first, I've been in their Talbot Centre office, and before COVID as well, and if there were 100 people working there, I'd be shocked, let alone 400. Second, if 400 are moving from downtown and the new place is 500, they are saying 100 new out of towners are coming?

[Snark]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Well first, I've been in their Talbot Centre office, and before COVID as well, and if there were 100 people working there, I'd be shocked, let alone 400. Second, if 400 are moving from downtown and the new place is 500, they are saying 100 new out of towners are coming?

The current WSIB London staff (they claim to be 400 people) will be pulled out of their current location in the downtown, and relocated to a vacant office building on the edge of the city. Another 100 will be relocated to same office building, presumably from the GTA. Bottom line: London's struggling downtown takes a crippling punch to the gut, for the benefit of increasing the region's employment numbers by approximately 0.0003 percent.

The politicians and bureaucrats were spinning this announcement so hard, I was getting dizzy taking it in. When said people spend an inordinate effort in their announcement on defending why they didn't choose a different solution, you know this choice is not actually going to help, and actually will likely be very detrimental to the city in the long run. After all, there can only be one message such a choice sends to the private sector when government won't even support the city's downtown: STAY AWAY.

The reasoning behind their decision was that they claim it to be lower cost (we will never really know if this is true, considering the lies they spun about the greenbelt). Nominally, one of the roles of government is to stimulate economic development, and of course that requires investing new funding in communities. London however elected all NDP MPP's in the last election, and the current provincial party in power is quite famous for nepotism and vindictiveness, so, there will be nothing beyond the minimum investment for London (that being retrofitting an abandoned office building on the edge of the city and a handful of new jobs) until the city's citizens start voting blue.

[ssiguy]

An extra $7 million isn't even a rounding error for such large entities. It's quite possible WCB wanted a downtown location but when looking at it's state of decay, decided against it.

[jammer139]

I have no doubt owning the 3M property will save them alot of money given the typical commercial lease is 10 years. $21M for the 3M building and all the acres of land surrounding it is a bargain. Plenty of room to build additions to the 3M campus in the future if they decide to expand and they already own the land.



I too was a little surprised they claim to have 400 employees currently downtown. Seems over inflated to me. Irregardless many of those have been teleworking and WFH for years.


This is a good news story and net benefit for London as the WSIB could have decided to relocate to another Ontario city like Kingston, KW, Orillia or Sudbury.

[Djeffery]

If they are saying 400 work in their Talbot Centre office then the 3M building by comparison can probably hold 2500 workers, maybe the rest of Ontario government offices downtown should move in there as well.

[jammer139]

Noticed that all the 3M signage has now been removed from the building and fronting onto the VMP.

[Djeffery]

I think that was all taken down last fall shortly after the announcement. There are also a couple "Welcome WSIB" signs near the airport.

[jammer139]

Noticed a number of contractor vans and trucks now parked onsite likely starting on the renovations for the remodelled office spaces. Probably alot of reconfiguration and new layouts for offices and common areas as well replacing all the communications wiring and prepping for a fresh coat of paint and new flooring and ceilings.