Design

CREATING SPACE

Compelling spaces will help lure workers back to downtown Victoria offices

BY GLEN KORSTROM

Victoria, like most cities, had plenty of empty office space during the pandemic.

Most employers followed provincial health officer Bonnie Henry’s advice to tell employees to work from home whenever it was possible.

Going forward, the city will face the same question besetting employers worldwide: how do we get staff to once again want to come into the office?

Leasing older office space in a distant office park likely will not do the trick, whereas leasing space in a new building that has modern amenities could help with recruitment, say industry insiders.

“You have to be able to create space that’s adequately compelling to get people off their kitchen table, and endure some of the unpleasant things about office life, like a commute,” says Robert Jawl, co-managing director at Jawl Properties, which is Victoria’s largest private sector office developer and leaser.

“Now, more than ever, we need to create great compelling spaces that resonate with those who use them.”

A shift has been going on for decades in downtown Victoria, with the private sector incrementally leasing proportionally more space.

Governments and Crown corporations still dominate the office-leasing landscape but a cluster of smaller private-sector technology companies has grown to be increasingly active in the market.

The sector is a stimulus for other businesses in the downtown area.

“The more office space there is in

Jawl Properties completed its Atrium building in

2010 | SILENTSAMA ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Victoria, the better,” says Bosa Development principal and Empress Hotel owner Nat Bosa.

“The city is really coming into its own.”

New structures have been helping to add vibrancy and transform the city.

Telus Corp. plans to break ground on its Telus Ocean marquee tower in downtown Victoria later this year, with the project likely to complete by 2025.

Other projects are on the drawing board in downtown Victoria.

Jawl is in the early stages of planning to construct an office building with some retail space at 1221 Blanchard Street, where the Capitol 6 movie theatre complex currently sits. His plan is to build 170,000 square feet of Class AA office space, as well as retail space in a mid-rise that will

be 10 or 11 storeys.

Jawl’s company is known for building the 215,000-square-foot Class AA Atrium building, at 800 Yates Street, in 2010.

A more recent project was the multiphase, mixed-use, Class AA project with 261,000 square feet of office space at Capital Park, behind the B.C. legislative buildings.

Jawl also recently built a 112,000-squarefoot, Class AA building at 1515 Douglas Street, and a connecting 190,000-squarefoot, Class AA office building at 750 Pandora Avenue, across the street from Victoria City Hall.

In total, the company’s portfolio includes about 1.75 million square feet of office space, Jawl says.

Key to getting employees back to offices is leasing offices that include outdoor spaces, and nearby retail, restaurants and fitness facilities, he says.

Jawl notes the pandemic has made it even more important to have what he calls “healthy buildings,” or essentially ones that have state-of-the-art air filtration and circulation systems.

Employees also want congregation space, both inside and outside, suited for casual gatherings.

“It is worth it to make investments in great design and materials that uplift and inspire,” he says.

“It really comes back to thoughtfulness, and attentiveness to the end-user experience, and ensuring that the building is playing a contributory role wherever possible, and enhancing the quality of life of the people who occupy it day in and day out.”

The less successful a building is at meeting that goal, the more likely employees will be to say, “I’m going to work at home four days a week, and come in the bare minimum, to pick up my mail,” Jawl says.

Building to a high environmental standard, and achieving certification from the widely used green building rating system Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), is another thing that can appeal to sustainability-minded employees.

Jawl built the Atrium to meet the LEED Gold standard, and more recent projects to the LEED Platinum standard.

“Most of the things we did to achieve those certifications, we would have done anyway, given the long-term value that they create, and the positive impact they have in reducing the building’s emissions,” he says.

Nonetheless, there is a new initiative in Victoria aiming to advance energy efficient, low-carbon-emission buildings.

The Building Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia (BOMA BC), along with 10 major property managers, the City of Victoria and the District of Saanich launched the Greater Victoria 2030 District in January.

Victoria is Canada’s second established 2030 District, after Toronto. In total, the 2030 Districts Network has 23 such districts across North America.

“BOMA knows this collaboration will play a key role in ensuring Greater Victoria builds back better from COVID-19, by advancing building resiliency and reducing climate change impacts,” says BOMA BC president Damian Stathonikos.

The 2030 District aims to stimulate investment in retrofitting buildings to help them contribute to a greener and more sustainable local economy.

Industry observers say that the march toward sustainability is inexorable, regardless of new initiatives.

“There just seems to be a common-sense drive from the office building ownership groups, and the developers, that you’re going to go green as much as possible moving forward,” says Colliers International vice-president Tristan Spark.