CALGARY | Oxford Tower | 262 M / 860 FT | 62 Floors - Page 4

TallBob · #61 Posted **Mar 9, 2015, 2:41 AM**

Heck, even if they don't do anything for a couple years, it's still good to see these guys getting some "prep work" started! Hopefully, if this proposal comes to fruition, It'll hit 900'+!

Chadillaccc · #62 Posted **Mar 10, 2015, 5:24 AM**

Yeah, soil testing is a good thing to get out of the way super early, that way once the market swings back, they can hit the ground running.

TallBob · #63 Posted **Mar 10, 2015, 5:52 AM**

^^ Hopefully! ^^

red-paladin · #64 Posted **Jul 8, 2016, 7:39 AM**

Is this proposal still alive?

TallBob · #65 Posted **Jul 8, 2016, 9:53 AM**

^^^ It's just that a proposal. Sadly, it's going to be a while before anyone should get excited about this one....The office market is in pretty tough shape for the next 3-4 years.

Skyisnolimit · #66 Posted **Jul 8, 2016, 9:56 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-paladin

Is this proposal still alive?

To put the Calgary office tower vacancy into perspective. One out of every 4 office towers are completely empty . This project wont go ahead for a decade at least.

TallBob · #67 Posted **Jul 9, 2016, 6:36 AM**

^^^ Sky.... You're probably right! I said 3-4 years being a little too optimistic!

Skyisnolimit · #68 Posted **Jul 9, 2016, 11:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallBob

^^^ Sky.... You're probably right! I said 3-4 years being a little too optimistic!

I see Calgary converting a lot of of office towers into condo's . The Older towers will be hard to attract new leases. So they wont go to waste having all the empty office space is not viablle in the long run.

Daveography · #69 Posted **Jul 9, 2016, 4:37 PM**

^ That really would be the best-case scenario: Eases up on the office vacancies, and would bring hundreds to thousands of new residents right into the core.

Spocket · #70 Posted **Jul 13, 2016, 9:48 PM**

The tower owners will be very reluctant to do that. When Calgary goes into full growth mode, the demand for office space is so high that they can barely keep up. As a result the rental rates per square foot can go way, way up. Converting a tower to condo units essentially takes those buildings off the market indefinitely. If they convert them now, they lose a huge amount of potential profit because housing prices are just as much tied to demand for office space in a city like Calgary. Calgary's a white collar town and to make a profit on any conversion from office to condo necessitates the property command premium rates. If there's no demand for office space then there's even less demand for condos that a real estate management company can capitalize on.

I'm not saying it won't happen as obviously I'm no insider. What I do know is that the Calgary market is intimately tied to the price of oil. Sooner or later the price per barrel will rise again but it all depends on how long it takes to reach a particular threshold. I would want to hold off as long as possible before making any decision to convert an office property to residential. I suspect that the tower owners in Calgary share this sentiment.

WhipperSnapper · #71 Posted **Jul 14, 2016, 3:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spocket

The tower owners will be very reluctant to do that. When Calgary goes into full growth mode, the demand for office space is so high that they can barely keep up. As a result the rental rates per square foot can go way, way up. Converting a tower to condo units essentially takes those buildings off the market indefinitely. If they convert them now, they lose a huge amount of potential profit because housing prices are just as much tied to demand for office space in a city like Calgary. Calgary's a white collar town and to make a profit on any conversion from office to condo necessitates the property command premium rates. If there's no demand for office space then there's even less demand for condos that a real estate management company can capitalize on.

I'm not saying it won't happen as obviously I'm no insider. What I do know is that the Calgary market is intimately tied to the price of oil. Sooner or later the price per barrel will rise again but it all depends on how long it takes to reach a particular threshold. I would want to hold off as long as possible before making any decision to convert an office property to residential. I suspect that the tower owners in Calgary share this sentiment.

The huge absorption of office space was in part to the hoarding of space. That may not happen next time after being burned by the blip in 2008 and this much more devastating downturn. I guess it comes down to budgets which will be based on cash flows. Vacancy also haven't been remotely close to this high before. It will take 4 years at record absorption to get back to the peak of the boom.

The problem with conversion is the condo market needs to be strong while the office market is very weak. This is an unlikely scenario in Calgary. Currently, the condo is in much better shape than commercial office however, I wouldn't call it booming.

Design-mind · #72 Posted **Jul 15, 2016, 11:09 PM**

I have heard a lot of offices are cutting up the unused space into smaller pieces to make it more manageable for small businesses. This can help alleviate some vacancies but not many. To have Oxford come on board you would need a very large company to sign a lease.