Has Calgary Solved its ‘Ghost Town’ Problem?

Emmet McGonagle

Nov 15, 2023

Downtown offices are the most vacant they’ve been in a decade… and Calgary is the emptiest of them all.


According to commercial real estate firm CBRE, the national downtown office vacancy rate currently stands at around
18.9 per cent, with areas including Edmonton and the Waterloo Region in Ontario experiencing some of the highest vacancy rates.


Calgary’s vacancy rate has been slowly rising since
the 2014 oil price crash (source: CBC), but has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic which began affecting CowTown in March 2020.


As a result, a number of downtown office buildings are being converted into homes, hotels and university spaces, with the
latest developments - conversion of buildings into two residential projects and one hotel - announced last week.


Pierre Bertrand, principal of Bertrand Management Consulting, expressed via LinkedIn that he hopes these new residences “get rid of the ‘ghost town’ syndrome that besets downtown cores at night and weekends when all the office workers go home”.


However, not everyone is as optimistic about the new developments. “So goes your downtown, so goes your city. This is troubling for cities across Canada.” wrote
Jason Aebig, CEO of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.


Likewise change management practitioner Jag Badhan warned that the new housing was “not a good thing for our economy”. 


“This is impacting employment and survival of small companies including mom and pop stores,” he continued.


Do you have a question about angel investing? Get in touch with Valhalla Private Capital via our
contact page.

By Emmet McGonagle 01 Dec, 2023
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By Emmet McGonagle 29 Nov, 2023
More than half of workers believe that disclosing worker compensation details on job postings will lead to better equality in pay, according to the latest iteration of LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index . The index - which is based on a survey of 3,302 members in Canada between June and September 2023 - found that 52% of people asked felt that people sharing their pay information (including salary and bonus) would improve workplace equality, compared to 48% in 2022. This number varies between different generations, with younger Canadians more likely to express support for pay transparency (73%), followed by 69% of Millennials, 46% of Gen X and 44% of Baby Boomers. However, 37% of those surveyed remarked that they felt anxious about sharing their pay information - a 2% rise from the year prior. Likewise, just under half (49%) said they felt well compensated for the work they do while 74% expressed that the pay gap between CEOs and employees had become too wide. The people of LinkedIn have come out in their dozens to give their two cents on the topic, with Adrienne Tom , executive resume writer for executives, saying: “ I'm all for salary transparency, so long as the number is clear and legit. Some postings list salary ranges so wide that the actual salary number isn't entirely clear, leaving job seekers confused.” “If you have a manager who is not advocating for the pay gap, you are working for the wrong manager,” remarked career strategist Sweta Regmi , while noting that women in Ontario earn an average of $0.87 for every dollar earned by men. On the topic, she added: “Salary ranges with job postings can help close the gender pay gap while allowing companies to find qualified candidates more quickly.” Do you have a question about angel investing? Get in touch with Valhalla Private Capital via our contact page .
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