07 Jul Our Changing Downtown
Mark Rose, chief executive of Avison Young predicts that: “The beginning of the full return to office is two years from now, I would say the earliest that we’re gonna get everybody back in the office is five years.”
While downtowns are seeing the impact of remote working – this is an issue for all areas in cities where offices make up the majority of a commercial zone.
As cities we are going to have to look at:
- different types of zoning to allow for different mixes of residential/commercial
- how we create and re-imagine our public spaces to give people reasons to go downtown
- how property owners can convert office spaces to residential or other types of spaces
- changing our views on parking space minimums
The good news is that many of St. Catharines offices/commercial properties are on major transit routes – which means that a shift to residential will allow residents to use public transit.
The pandemic has given us all the opportunity to reset, reimagine and recreate our cities. Let’s not waste this opportunity.
Read more at: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-the-office-is-dead-for-five-more-years-commercial-real-estate-chief/
