Silence&Motion
Senior Member
Maestro's patience in explaining the real estate market is really quite remarkable.
Oxford Tower | 262.12m | 62s | Oxford Properties
- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
heightjunkie
Active Member
I wonder if Encana would agree with this sentiment.
What about a mixed model like Telus Sky? I can certainly understand the desire to maximize return on the site (and it's not like Oxford doesn't have the pocket change to bear waiting...) but I would be interested to know how longer periods of high vacancy rates could average down the higher psf return on Office space and make it potentially more valuable to look to offset with some consistency- a hedge on your bet so to speak. Though, I suppose Oxford has enough properties spread around the world that they don't need to hedge their bet on one project, as the risk can be spread around many.
maestro
Senior Member
Telus Sky is unproven. The office space is 60% vacant. The parking lot pays for itself. They can easily afford to pay off the purchase price. They have a future development in their portfolio.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Encana is the least relevant thing to this discussion, they aren't even going be Encana anymore...
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
Actually the office space is 60% leased, 40% vacant. A Calgary tech company just announced that they leased a bunch of it like two weeks ago. Certainly not the worst case scenario, for an unfinished tower in this economic climate.
Calgary's TELUS Sky signs tech firm as an anchor tenant | RENX - Real Estate News Exchange
A glimmer of hope has appeared for Calgary’s beleaguered downtown office market with the leasing of 80,000 square feet of space to a technology company in the new TELUS Sky mixed-use tower. Absorb Software, a learning technology company, will be
renx.ca
JTron
Active Member
Too bad about the high vacancy rate downtown, I imagine this is nowhere near getting built. On the flipside the design is uninspiring, so maybe it's for the best.
YourBoy007
Active Member
I'd rather see a super tall +300m mixed-use skyscraper. Calgary is due for one.
heightjunkie
Active Member
We're not going to see a 300 for until the 2030s imo. But who knows what the next decade holds.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
Calgary is most definitely not "due" for a supertall 
We would be the smallest metropolitan area on the planet with a supertall. We will likely never see another major office building constructed here, at least not in any of our lifetimes unless something seriously drastic happens in the global economy/all lithium in the universe just suddenly becomes inert. Hopefully I'm wrong 
. Most metros 3 times our size don't even have a supertall. The best we can hope for in the long run is major mixed use hotel/residential towers, and even in actual global metropolises with spatial constraints and many extremely wealthy people wanting to live the high-rise life, those towers make very little economic sense over 250 meters let alone here (zero spatial constraints, very few wealthy people interested in high rise living).
We would be the smallest metropolitan area on the planet with a supertall. We will likely never see another major office building constructed here, at least not in any of our lifetimes unless something seriously drastic happens in the global economy/all lithium in the universe just suddenly becomes inert. Hopefully I'm wrong . Most metros 3 times our size don't even have a supertall. The best we can hope for in the long run is major mixed use hotel/residential towers, and even in actual global metropolises with spatial constraints and many extremely wealthy people wanting to live the high-rise life, those towers make very little economic sense over 250 meters let alone here (zero spatial constraints, very few wealthy people interested in high rise living).
We aren't due for one, but it would be pretty cool. 
A mixed use building (65-70 floors)with a cheater spire to put it into the supertall category.
A mixed use building (65-70 floors)with a cheater spire to put it into the supertall category.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
I can get behind that. A 260 meter mixed use with a 45 meter American-style spire to put it over the top.
YourBoy007
Active Member
Spires suck. They're ugly and lame. Even the spire on One World Trade Center isn't cool.
UrbanWarrior
Senior Member
You're right, but that's the only way we're ever going to have a building classified as a supertall.
potatopizzafan
Active Member
you don't think another major office building will be built here again in our lifetimes? That is one hell of a hot takeCalgary is most definitely not "due" for a supertall
heightjunkie
Active Member
I am not sure about our entire lifetime, but I think that we will see new trends in working emerge post pandemic. The future of office space needs is very much in flux from where it was even 2 years ago. The situation was already pretty dire in the office real estate market in Calgary and this trend from the need for large office floorplates and towards more liberal home working arrangements/ flexible office space when required will very likely continue to depress it for a very long time. I guessed a decade or more before there's even consideration of a supertall in the city but it's probably closer to 2 decades at minimum. Pure housing plays don't need to be close to supertalls in Calgary's market.
Re: the design of a supertall. I don't really understand the hate for spires. Maybe if we had many spires, like New York and Chicago. But our skyline is so flat, a supertall with a spire (a la BOA or smaller Vanderbuilt) would be really defining and beautiful. Plus it would give us more of that replicating the mountain backdrop feel, which I love.
Re: the design of a supertall. I don't really understand the hate for spires. Maybe if we had many spires, like New York and Chicago. But our skyline is so flat, a supertall with a spire (a la BOA or smaller Vanderbuilt) would be really defining and beautiful. Plus it would give us more of that replicating the mountain backdrop feel, which I love.