Yes, 50% growth is a reason for increased suburban retail, but it is not a reason for decreased downtown retail.

The COVID shift to work at home was no doubt a big recent problem, but over the last several decades downtown Edmonton has seen an increase in both office space and residential buildings.
 
Unfortunately our Downtown office population really hasn't changed in 20 years even though there's more buildings. It's just offices shuffling around. Recent Lloyd Sadd announcement is positive news.. There's more residents and lots more students. LaSalle really only thinks about ECC in terms of the customers it can draw from the offices it's connected to via pedways. Hopefully over time that will change over time.
 
At one point in the last decade there were around 10 buildings over 20 stories under construction downtown, more were residential but some were office buildings as well.

So I think the stagnant downtown argument is that accurate.
 
Greenspace said:
Unfortunately our Downtown office population really hasn't changed in 20 years even though there's more buildings. It's just offices shuffling around. Recent Lloyd Sadd announcement is positive news.. There's more residents and lots more students. LaSalle really only thinks about ECC in terms of the customers it can draw from the offices it's connected to via pedways. Hopefully over time that will change over time.
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Space densification is real. Probably 1/3 more employees now in the same amount of space. I think downtown office population actually has increased.
 
Greenspace said:
Unfortunately our Downtown office population really hasn't changed in 20 years even though there's more buildings. It's just offices shuffling around. Recent Lloyd Sadd announcement is positive news.. There's more residents and lots more students. LaSalle really only thinks about ECC in terms of the customers it can draw from the offices it's connected to via pedways. Hopefully over time that will change over time.
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This is the bone I will constantly pick with the City, the mayors, and Edmonton Global - the institutions mandated with growing the number of jobs, companies and corporate investment in downtown.

I have never once heard Edmonton's mayors publicly declare a specific and strategic mandate to increase or attract new businesses or employers to downtown Edmonton, other than generic "I support downtown" comments from Sohi.

Edmonton Global has been around since 2017 and has been publicly connected to one firm that opened a downtown office in December 2017. That firm had 30 employees in one suite in the AMII building. That firm closed up shop a month ago and Edmonton Global has now been publicly connected to 0 firms with 0 employees in downtown.

We need to change the downtown office population for reasons of 1. vibrancy 2. lower office vacancy 3. more and increased corporate taxes/higher office building valuations 4. trickle down effect of spending at and spurring other businesses development downtown.
 
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I don't want to put everything on the current mayor, afterall he was not mayor in 2017. I think the previous mayor coasted on the work done by the mayor before him, so building up downtown hasn't really not been a priority for the previous or current administration and at this point it shows. If anything the city has made things worse with a lot of never ending construction.

The majority of councilors are suburban and the current councilor for the downtown area is fairly new and does not seem willing or able to take much of a leadership role on this issue.

As a business person, I would start by taking a hard look at something that produced 0 and 0 over the last five years. Platitudes are nice, but at this point city council has to be proactive, not just reactive on this. I don't see much sign they get this or have many solid ideas on how to fix this.
 
David A said:
I don't want to put everything on the current mayor, afterall he was not mayor in 2017. I think the previous mayor coasted on the work done by the mayor before him, so building up downtown hasn't really not been a priority for the previous or current administration and at this point it shows. If anything the city has made things worse with a lot of never ending construction.

The majority of councilors are suburban and the current councilor for the downtown area is fairly new and does not seem willing or able to take much of a leadership role on this issue.

As a business person, I would start by taking a hard look at something that produced 0 and 0 over the last five years. Platitudes are nice, but at this point city council has to be proactive, not just reactive on this. I don't see much sign they get this or have many solid ideas on how to fix this.
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My post said "mayors". That includes both Sohi and Iveson in my mind as those two have been around for a decade plus including Sohi as a councilor, and extends before them.

Edit: and I say mayors as they are the the biggest and most key brand ambassadors of the city. For reference, investors in Toronto are keen to see who will be replacing their mayor who recently stepped down. It is not all about Sohi, or Iveson for that matter, but having someone who is pro business development would certainly not hurt.
globalnews.ca

International investors hope to see business savvy mayor in Toronto, observers say - Toronto | Globalnews.ca

John Tory's tenure came to an end on Friday, capping off a turbulent week at Toronto City Hall that started Feb. 10 when he announced his resignation.
globalnews.ca globalnews.ca
 
What I really want to see is a mayor focused on building up our downtown, but I really don't think being business friendly or not is the primary issue.

For instance, a lot of people would criticize the last two mayors of Calgary and not being business friendly, as well as the previous mayor of Vancouver and the current mayor of Montreal. Yet somehow all those places have downtown's that are still doing fairly well.
 
David A said:
What I really want to see is a mayor focused on building up our downtown, but I really don't think being business friendly or not is the primary issue.

For instance, a lot of people would criticize the last two mayors of Calgary and not being business friendly, as well as the previous mayor of Vancouver and the current mayor of Montreal. Yet somehow all those places have downtown's that are still doing fairly well.
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I actually think Nenshi was a pretty big booster for Calgary and specifically courted several companies to set up in dt Calgary. He went on a lot of overseas trips to promote his city. I wouldn't have minded having him in our corner. He was also outspoken to the province on behalf of Calgary and didn't pull any punches with the public either haha
 
I don't disagree with your assessment of Nenshi he promoted his city, was articulate and forceful in his advocacy for it, but policy wise the business community there (or at least a significant part of it) sure didn't consider him business friendly.
 
David A said:
I don't disagree with your assessment of Nenshi he promoted his city, was articulate and forceful in his advocacy for it, but policy wise the business community there (or at least a significant part of it) sure didn't consider him business friendly.
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That's because small business in particular had to make up for most of the depreciation of their empty office buildings resulting in some significant tax increases. And that's how the province has set up municipalities to function tax wise.
 
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