No Cracks in the Office Facade
We couldn't let Jan go without asking about the Toronto office market. Brookfield is well into the construction of the 44-storey, 980k SF Bay Adelaide Centre East Tower (image), coming late 2015. "Not a lot of difference between the last build cycle and this one," he says. We see "a reversal of the trend from 10 to 15 years ago, where certain offices moved to the 905. We are still seeing the live, work, play attitude."
More businesses are coming downtown to consolidate, Jan adds, taking advantage of centralization and infrastructure. Are we overheating amid an onslaught of new office tower builds in the core? Jan (middle) points to a market sitting at below 5% vacancy. "We have to be careful, though. It's like everything else, you have to watch... the global economy," he adds. And that new product isn't coming online until 2014-2017, he says, so there's a period of time for the market to grow into it. (Markets are like Christmas sweaters.)
