Vancouver City Hall-7 of 11 Floors Empty

[whatnext]

I debated putting this in General Vancouver Updates, but something told me it might quickly go south, even though it concerns City Hall, Crossroads and the Woodwards Building :

...The Vancouver Sun revealed that since last summer at least four departments have moved out of city hall into leased spaces around the city at a cost of $48 million, leaving empty the top seven floors of the 11-storey city hall. This at a time when city council was telling taxpayers it was struggling with a $61-million budget deficit and cutting programs upon which citizens rely. Three departments were forced by Ottawa and Victoria to lease space in the Woodward's development, reportedly to ensure services were delivered in the Downtown Eastside. But one wonders if it was also to ensure the project, which was given $130 million in public funds, had tenants.

But seven floors sit empty at city hall? Are they serious?

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/E...#ixzz0xaenbSCw

[Spork]

Seems to be a bit much, but if you look at the profile of the building, while 7/11 floors is 64% of the floors, I'd bet that it is no more than 30% of the square footage. Either way, that is far too much to be empty to be acceptable.

[SpikePhanta]

And with Crossroads, were they forced to move there aswell.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpikePhanta

And with Crossroads, were they forced to move there aswell.

How could they be forced?

[whatnext]

Of course going hand-in-hand with the questionable economics of having City Hall largely empty and renting space is Gregor Robertson's decision to spend money on a new office for himself and his political staff:

The city should cancel plans to expand mayor Gregor Robertson’s office as well as create a lunchroom for councillors, two Vancouver councillors said Tuesday.

Ellen Woodsworth and Suzanne Anton are questioning why the city needs to spend a total of $260,000 to create a lunchroom and move city manager Penny Ballem’s office to the empty sixth floor in order to make room for new offices for Robertson...

...“I never voted on any of this,” said Woodsworth, one of two Coalition of Progressive Electors councillors. She said she was shocked to discover many floors of city hall were left vacant after the engineering department’s move.

“I wonder why we are moving people down to the Woodward’s building when we have so much space. I am also getting complaints from staff who say it is a waste of their time having to travel back and forth to city hall.”

She said there are enough small committee rooms on the third floor for councillors to find a place to eat. “This is not, in my mind, a priority issue ... when we are cutting staff and services....”

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Cou...#ixzz0xjjpLC1m

[wrenegade]

I would also be interested on why the city were "forced" to take space in Crossroads. I was under the impression they have a sub-lease from Lululemon there, not sure how they could be forced into taking that.

[Yume-sama]

leased spaces around the city at a cost of $48 million, leaving empty the top seven floors of the 11-storey city hall. This at a time when city council was telling taxpayers it was struggling with a $61-million budget deficit and cutting programs upon which citizens rely.

Well, duh! We should cut back and pay more taxes, but the government must always expand. And spend hundreds of thousands on plush new offices and lunchrooms.

Don't be such a hack.

[Stingray2004]

It might not be common knowledge, but the mayor's office has a secret/private elevator and three sets of doors to reach same - a very secured and private setting.

The Mayor’s office currently sits behind three sets of doors. Once those doors are closed, you can’t find a more private office anywhere in City Hall. For those unfamiliar with City Hall, a hidden separate elevator for use by the Mayor and select staff exists through a back door in his office.

Source: http://www.citycaucus.com/2010/08/ne...hatch#comments

BTW, here's Mayor Moonbeam driving up to City Hall in his green mobile (a Sunbeam), walking through the three sets of doors, and then reaching his secret/private elevator:

• Video Link

Courtesy to poster Glen Hall at City Caucus

[whatnext]

Blasphemy! Mayor Moonbeam would never drive a car to City Hall! He'd be weaving in front of busses on his bike!

[Millennium2002]

Aww come on.... seven empty floors? I'm probably betting that the assumption that Spork is using is accurate, but again it'd be really nice if they'd move one of their offices back to save some money... and maybe also do a cheaper renovation in the mayor's office. =S

In fact, if I recall there's a few offices in a weird building just next to City Hall Stn unless those have moved recently. =S

[dleung]

I didn't know $130M for Woodwards was public money... just lost a little faith in the system...

[jlousa]

The Civic and non-profit office space, SROs plus SFU did cost money to build, hence the public funds. They got one hell of a deal too.

[dleung]

Civic space? The atrium? Shouldn't stuff like that be demanded of developers of any decent-scale project, by the city? Non-profit office space... sounds like an only-in-Vancouver kind of enterprise, lol. So much much square footage did the $130M buy anyway?

[SFUVancouver]

The 130,000 square foot SFU School for the Contemporary Arts represents the majority of the $130 million you quoted for the public component of Woodwards. Incidentally, I would love to be able to cite that source for a project I am working on, so could you provide a link?

If I am not mistaken the Province provided $49 million for the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts and the school's fundraising efforts brought in at least $30 million, including $10 million from Goldcorp. I don't know how much came out of the school's capital budget but we are already up to approximately $80 million out of the $130 million that was quoted.

I can very easily see how 200 units of social housing on top of SFU Woodwards and an office building inside the heritage facade of the oldest Woodwards building would eat up another $50 million. I know that several of the "14 Sites" supportive housing buildings are budgeted in the $30 million dollar range and have an average of 120 units. In light of that it really is not difficult to imagine that the non-market housing at Woodwards would have eaten up at least $30 to $40 million of the outstanding $50 million, which would leave $10 to $20 million to cover the approximately 60,000 square foot office building.

Plus don't forget that more than a billion dollars had been poured into social service and housing agencies in the DTES over the years and Woodwards was intended to try to help address the issues that plauge the DTES without simply throwing more money at the usual suspects. I think that having a thousand art school students and a couple hundred staff and faculty, close to a thousand new residents, new businesses, and a few hundred office workers from the City, National Film Board, and local non-profits can only help but do good for the neighbourhood. If public money helped make the project possible, which it did, and it has the outcomes for the neighbourhood that are designed, which I think have already started to be seen, then it is money well spent.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Blasphemy! Mayor Moonbeam would never drive a car to City Hall! He'd be weaving in front of busses on his bike!

And riding the Skytrain for free.

[s211]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

And riding the Skytrain for free.

To be more specific, he'll be evading fares, not using a free pass.

[Millennium2002]

Mentioned this already, but I think the city should relocate back into itself... particularly the departments housed in the yellow low-rise buildings along Broadway and the VanCity Building (and maybe Crossroads later).

Of course this all probably means a rebuild of City Hall. How much does it cost to do that btw compared to leasing out? Maybe the same... or more due to heritage considerations?