What do you think of this project?


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But I thought we had a very good quarter in terms of office space absorption? Is this not a positive?

Edmonton’s office market saw a net absorption of 165,000 square feet in the latest quarter, while downtown vacancies fell to 20.4% and suburban vacancies to 17.4%. Avison Young, which reported the numbers, said the absorption rate breaks the previous record set in Q3 of 2018, when 158,000 square feet was absorbed. Demand was driven by educational institutions, including NorQuest College, which expanded its downtown space by 63,000 square feet, and the Edmonton Classical Academy charter school, which signed a lease for 61,000 square feet. Edmonton has the second-highest downtown office vacancy rate of any major Canadian market after Calgary.
-Taproot
Yes it is a positive.
 
Seems high for a building like Manulife, but I don't know how they are doing relative to other space downtown - we're still down overall relative to other markets. APEGA moving out doesn't really help things either - CWB was mostly a given to stay downtown imo. Good for Manulife, but I'm not sure I share your enthusiasm for downtown right now.
You'd be surprised the TI's landlords are dishing out to get some deals done. And this goes for all building classes new or old.

This is good for downtown as we avoided building more office space which we don't need to do right now, irrespective of the vacancy rates dropping as per the recent market update for Q3.
 
Escalators are almost ready to open!
I find it interesting that these renovations took roughly the same amount of time as the renovations for the Commerce Place escalators last year.

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I recently noticed this looked almost done, seemed a bit faster than Commerce, but I never used the escalator here as much as there, so maybe being inconvenienced made it seem longer.

I feel after a few years, with things open again, shipping rates way down, demand slowing, etc.. those "supply chain issues" should be resolved by now. At this point, I wonder if it is sometimes being used as an excuse.
 
So will this classic beauty now be called the CWB building and not the Manulife? Always has been my favorite downtown building.
CWB is far more impactful for our local economy than Manulife ever was, so renaming the building after a company that is actually located here and and has a significant presence is a good thing, I feel.
 
I remember the movie theatres in the parkade out back (Zebra parkade now?) that were the size of your Grandma’s living room. Btw, what did the “Principal” in Principal Plaza refer to? Was it an insurance company?
 

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