Average weekly - 82%
Peak Day - Wednesday 91%
Low Day - Friday 55%
The 2025 round of ‘return-to-the-office’ mandates are having an effect on the Occupancy Index this Fall as it moves higher consistently but when people come to the office remains concentrated on the middle of the workweek. There was a spike early this Fall on Fridays and Mondays but that hasn’t continued leading many to believe that the mandates are not having an impact on spreading the commute out or easing transit congestion or helping retailers manage staff.
Will the crush days of Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday continue, will Mondays and Fridays be ‘choice’ days for some? Mandates announced recently intended to take effect in the New Year may address this problem by insisting in a complete return to the office. However, there does not seem to be that many companies pressing for a complete return and this may lead to weak attendance on Monday and Friday for some time.
Enjoy the ‘Articles of Interest’ below.
Your SRRA team
Links to Articles of Interest
And Then, the Very Next Day…
Just hours after news of Amazon’s commitment to in-person work in downtown Vancouver, the corporation announced plans to lay off many thousands of corporate jobs across North America and beyond.
In the U.S., Foreign Investors Are Moving in to Snap Up Office Properties
After years of anemic growth in foreign investment, several associations representing international investors are reporting a massive shift in preferences. The trend is sufficiently marked in New York that some are complaining that the city is “running out of trophy Class A buildings for sale.’ San Francisco is also seeing a resurgence – driven by AI-related employment – and even Washington, where signals are pointed in all directions at once, is attracting the interest of foreign investors.
Quality Space Needed to Justify Return to the Office
Design firms are working overtime to help employers match the promise of benefits associated with returning to the office, conscious of complaints about noise, not enough diskspace and more. Toronto landlords also see a rise in interest in co-working space, particularly in places that office good locations and an attractive environment. Niche co-work opportunities on the edge of downtown suggest that such locations can benefit from easier access in a congested core with slightly more affordable, attractive space.
Re-use of Former Post Office Building Heralded as Good News for Vancouver’s Office Sector
Constructed in the international style in 1958, this downtown building served as a major employment hub for decades before being sold to a developer in 2013. Now Amazon is set to benefit from its transformation into a very different kind of employment hub, with Amazon leasing more than million square foot in this imaginative adaptive re-use, crammed with amenities, a massive atrium and complementary uses. “The Post is a place where downtown Vancouver comes together, preserving our past while being driven by our passion to invent for the future,” an Amazon spokesperson commented.” As a protected heritage building, the architects worked with several consultants to preserve and incorporate as much of the former development as possible,” keeping “the original steel-framed structure, much of the granite and concrete cladding and the facade’s terra cotta panels. The podium that was part of the original building was also restored and reinforced to accommodate the two new office towers that now sit on top.”
Waiting for Godot? When Will Crosstown Open? – Beyond a Joke
Googling stories about Crosstown yields a stack of podcasts and u-tube videos detailing the years of frustration from residents and, sadly, business owners whose aspirations faded into the sunset – having survived COVID, many thought a corner had been turned. But no. Embarrassing to say that some of the bloggers are from other countries. The painfully detailed analysis by the Globe below includes a timeline of non-events and failed milestones. Some of the fences are down at selected stations. But the glass-box designs will never have development rising above them. One observer, whose first exposure to Canada in 1967 included a tour of the Montreal Metro, recalls the explanation given for the modest ‘huts’ over some station entrances. “The idea is that buildings will in time be constructed on those sites, providing direct access for transit users.” Wise words from a half century ago. How was it ever thought that Crosstown’s approach to station access made any sense?
Meanwhile, Metrolinx Suggests that Revenue Service on Crosstown to Begin
This doesn’t mean that the line is ready to open. Another 30-day trial is underway. Let’s hope the trains can stay on the tracks and that the line passes its tests without incident.
“The Occupancy Index is supported by the City of Toronto, Downtown Yonge BIA, and Downtown West BIA. It is a measure of the percentage of office employees returning to the office compared to the number of employees who would normally have come to their offices pre-COVID. For a detailed description of the calculation please contact Iain Dobson at [email protected],”