I think this pretty much confirms that Toronto downtown office building is about the best market warning of an impending economic collapse. How many times have we seen this happen. Watch out when they start building the 75 story Bay-Richmond centre its time to move your portfolio into cash.
 
No, it's not a very good indicator at all, and it's FAR from the best indicator of recession, of which there are many.

First of all, construction of new office projects began to slow down well ahead of recent economic events, so the two aren't even that closely correlated. Office space is generally built when vacancy rates are low. Vacancy rates were at a record low around 2006, and the group of large towers now under construction are going to fill that void. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to continue building office towers (unless you are a large property management company like Brookfield and want to saturate the market for office space with your own properties and continue building despite expected vacancy rates).

Vacancy rates themselves might be a better indicator of economic contraction. If vacancy rates are rising, it could indicate that companies are shedding employees, which in turn indicates recession. This is definitely not the case right now, though. Of course it could also mean that supply of office space is close to or exceeds demand, as I mentioned above, so vacancy rates are not a good indicator of recession either.

In case you haven't been watching the news, Canada has perhaps the most stable economy in the world right now. A slow, easy slide into recession is far more likely than "impending economic collapse."
 
this was posted by BisonBlight over at SSC, and comes from the EllisDon website....couple of interesting things to note...

EllisDon has been awarded the Construction Management contract for 18 York Street. Project is targeted for LEED® Gold status.

EllisDon Toronto has been awarded the Construction Management contract for 18 York Street which is located on the northwest corner of York Street and Bremner Boulevard.

This project will consist of a 600,000 square foot office tower, with twenty-six storeys which includes three levels of underground parking. It will feature a landscaped "urban forest" on the third floor terrace to compliment the possibility of café or retail space. The office space will include access flooring for easy conversion of the mechanical and electrical systems for future uses. The exterior will be floor to ceiling curtainwall.

There will be a connecting pedestrian bridge over York Street, and a link way to Transit and Go station.
The prime tenant in this office tower will be Price Waterhouse.
This project is targeted for LEED® Gold status.
The project will begin October 20, 2008 with an expected completion date of September 2011.
 
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I walked by the site today and although there was some equipment then in the picture above (those pile driver thingies, what are they called?)

But the sign for the building is gone!!

i.e. If I recall there used to be a big sign for the building on the site, I didn't see it anymore. Canceled? :confused:
 
That sign has been gone for several weeks now. It wasn't there when I took that picture above. I think they might have removed it when they brought in the shoring machines.
 
Does 500 posts make me an offical senior member? lol ... yey

hmm, did a Mod changes the rules. I could swear the number used to be 400!

Anyway,

Thanks! - I do recall, at least about 3/5 weeks ago there was a sign on site. Other then bringing equipment in nothing really seems to have been done yet. They could actually be waiting for permits.
 

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