February 8, 2012 by John Seymour
I am still struggling with what to do in a “balance sheet recession” That is what Stephen Jarislowsky described as the outcome of the Lehman collapse – a recession driven by everyone looking to repair their individual balance sheets and inflicting the paradox of thrift . (Read article) I lived through a real estate recession from 1992-95, [...]
November 23, 2011 by John Seymour
The great debate at the Ottawa Real Estate Forum was the session featuring Sandy McNair of Altus InSite and Nathan Smith of Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa. The subject was the impact of the federal government’s plan to change its occupancy. In a market in which it has contracted for 4 million sf of new supply, [...]
August 18, 2011 by John Seymour
You would think it would be pretty easy to figure out how big an office market is. The buildings are big (even the little ones) and they are generally easy to find. True, you might struggle with the details like minimum size requirement (at least 20,000 sf) or with a mixed use building (flex) and [...]
June 14, 2011 by John Seymour
In my last blog, I wrote the first of a three-part series on the majority government’s impact on Ottawa’s commercial real estate scene. That blog dealt with supply for the feds in Ottawa and generated a question: so what? The feds have been talking about increasing the vacancy rate for years and now have some [...]
June 2, 2011 by John Seymour
With the election of a majority government in Ottawa, I thought it would be a good time to review how that may affect accommodations needs for the federal government, and what impact that may have on private sector ownership. I will address this topic in a three-part series: supply for the federal government, demand from [...]
March 10, 2011 by John Seymour
It is my contention that PWGSC’s purchase of the Nortel Campus is the trade that defined 2010.
