Should this downtown building go condo or office?

This one’s going residential. The demand for downtown housing is a lot stronger in many downtowns than the softened office market, mainly because the supply of office buildings dwarfs the number of residential ones.

Office space is more profitable, but… – Yes, building owners make more money off of corporate office tenants than residential ones, but just as rich residential tenants are more profitable than middle-class ones, there are only so much of them to go around. Downtowns are saturated with ‘Class A’ office space, as reported in ArchNewsNow.com.

Too much office space = ghostland at night – Ever walk around those financial districts at night? Eerie. It also means everyone’s commuting, another unpleasant experience. Third, it means the city’s missing out on a vastly lucrative nighttime economy.

Vancouver provides residential developers, but perhaps maybe too much? Residential property owners pay five times less the property tax per s.f. as those with office space. So while the nighttime economy booms, the daytime economy is so-so.

Strike that balance!

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neilkt