Vacancy continues to shrink in Calgary's downtown office-space market.
According to the latest downtown report from Colliers International, available space in the city's office core shrunk to 4.2 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2012, down from nearly 4.5 per cent at the end of 2011.
Space in the top Class AA category is now very rare, with availability below 0.6 per cent.
Almost 870,000 square feet of space was absorbed into the market in the first quarter of 2012.
The big new addition to the market is The Bow, which will fill up with Cenovus and Encana employees over the next several months as final leasehold improvements continue. Space occupied by the two oilpatch giants has already been leased for the future once the two companies complete their moves.
Colliers says some downtown tenants have begun to explore alternatives in the Beltline area south of downtown, and the suburbs.
"Low availability and pent-up demand has sparked a new development cycle," Colliers said. "At least five new office developments, totalling over 3.5 million square feet, are being proposed for completion between 2014 and 2017, although only two are confirmed as proceeding and all others remain contingent on reaching pre-leasing thresholds."
– Compiled by Dave Husdal
from Western Investor June 2012
