Downtown office commercial market to see higher vacancy rates in 2017

Despite setting a third-quarter record with a reported $11.2 billion in sales, Calgary's commercial real estate sector will likely see vacancy rates continue to soar this year and next, predicts real estate firm CBRE Ltd.

CBRE Calgary-based managing director Greg Kwong said the downtown market will feel it the hardest, with vacancy rates that are expected to close in on 30 per cent.

Current economic challenges harken back to past president's term

The early 1980s in Alberta were a memorable and challenging time for anyone who lived through them.

Characterized by a severe global recession, widespread housing foreclosures, bankruptcies and unemployment, by the time Jim Moore was president of the Calgary Real Estate Board in 1985, market conditions remained difficult but some changes were afoot.

Comparing Calgary's current downturn to history

Calgary's infamous boom-bust economy is at it once again.

Just as it did in the 1980s and late-2000s, economic conditions have once again turned sour.

But does this downturn feel different from those that came before?

Yes, says CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie.

In CREB®'s 2016 Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast, Lurie notes that while some have tried to compare this year to the early 1980s – in terms of its perfect storm of low oil prices and high unemployment – the underlying conditions are, in fact, much different.

Designed to promote sustainable community

The Town of Cochrane has launched a new campaign that encourages residents to shop local and support the community as a place to live, work and play.

Dubbed Proudly Cochrane, the initiative is designed to highlight the shopping opportunities that exist within the town of more than 20,000 residents, said economic development manager Mike Korman.

"It's really about being proud to come home from wherever we work and to shop at the local stores – (to) just sort of create a little buzz," he said, noting the campaign is supported through the hashtag #shopcochrane on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as via testimonials at www.cochrane.ca/ShopCochrane.