Concierge services are becoming the norm in the city's office spaces
Ottawa is seeing more and more specialized amenities and services integrated into its office buildings, providing a wider suite of options to landlords and would-be investors alike.
Such services include, but are not limited to, parcel storage, pet care, and automotive maintenance – and these are emblematic of the continuous experimentation taking place in Ottawa’s commercial space.
“If you went back to the 1970s or ’80s in Ottawa, concierge service in its most basic form was someone pushing around a sandwich cart in a law office,” CBRE vice president and managing director (Ottawa) Shawn Hamilton said.
“But we’re now starting to see corporations and employees demand the full concierge experience,” Hamilton told the Ottawa Business Journal.
Constitution Square tenant services coordinator Nancy Savard cited the building’s childcare services and fitness studio, among others, as what sets it apart from the more traditional office complexes. Also available are seasonal offerings like gift-wrapping service centres.
“As tenants move over the course of their business, they realize what can be offered as part of their tenancy, hence, why the demand for more amenities is always in the forefront of any negotiation,” Savard stated.
Sustained demand for office space in the leading markets of Toronto and Vancouver can lead to Canada’s other cities becoming more feasible options, according to a new study by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).
In its Cyberprovinces 2019 report, the group argued that as space is becoming an ever-scarcer premium in the largest cities, Canada can consider the examples set by some secondary cities south of the border.
“Something like a Charlotte, or a Kansas City, or an Austin,” CompTIA senior vice-president of research and market intelligence Tim Herbert told Postmedia in an interview.
“These cities [are] more affordable, [and] in some cases you can make an argument that there is better quality of life.”
