Transit And Amenities: Keys To Survival For Suburban Office
Combined Class-A and B office vacancy in GTA West rose to 18.4% in 2015, with much of the available space in decades-old buildings in the Airport East node along Airport Road. That's according to Newmark Knight Frank Devencore, whose sharply dressed Toronto West managing principal Rob Renaud tells us the 800k SF of new supply that’s been delivered in GTA West over the past 18 months is only making things tougher for the aging competition. And there's another 1M SF of development underway in Airport Corporate Centre, Meadowvale and Oakville, most of it energy-efficient, mixed-use and transit-oriented.
New supply includes HOOPP’s Spectrum SQ in Mississauga, with 134k SF of LEED Gold space in Phase 1. (Rob recently inked a 50k SF deal there for Investment Planning Counsel.) The state-of-the-art building has the under-construction Eglinton Bus Rapid Transit line on its doorstep, which Rob says drove its success; ditto its amenities, including a 60k SF retail plaza (above) and electric car charging. Office developers hoping to win these days “can’t just plunk a building down in a business park and hope for the best,” says Rob. “It’s all about mixed-use and transit connectivity now.”
More office is coming to GTA West, including Carttera Private Equities’ 270k SF Gateway Meadowvale in Mississauga (above); First Gulf’s 102k SF 610 Chartwell Rd in Oakville (next to a GO Transit station); and Westbury International's 219k SF 2201 Bristol Circle, also in Oakville. With this, notes Rob, the flight to quality continues. It's spurring some owners of older properties to upgrade their holdings to stay competitive, like Dream is doing on Airport Road. If aging offices can’t offer transit connections, the least they can do is add amenities. “You need to give employees more than just an office building in the middle of nowhere,” Rob says.
