‘Big groups’ looking to potentially relocate to offices downtown, new C&W exec Whiting says

While the gap between the haves and the have-nots among Ottawa’s downtown office landlords is showing few signs of narrowing, Cushman & Wakefield’s newest senior local executive says leasing activity in the core is picking up as building owners work to attract new tenants. “I’m seeing people excited to get back to the office,” Jessica […]

While the gap between the haves and the have-nots among Ottawa’s downtown office landlords is showing few signs of narrowing, Cushman & Wakefield's newest senior local executive says leasing activity in the core is picking up as building owners work to attract new tenants. “I’m seeing people excited to get back to the office,” Jessica Whiting, who joined C&W as a vice-president last month, told OBJ on Friday. “There’s definitely been a resurgence in office space and people wanting to get back to their … teams.” Whiting, who represents both landlords and tenants in office leasing negotiations, spent the past decade as a broker at Colliers. She described moving to C&W as a “great opportunity” to work with an office leasing team that includes industry veterans Kimberley Hall and Alain Desmarais. Whiting said she’s hoping to help the company grow its leasing portfolio. She sees plenty of potential for new business in the downtown core, which appears to be gaining momentum as more tenants solidify their return-to-office strategies after the pandemic hollowed out buildings across the city. Ottawa’s downtown vacancy rate fell nearly eight-tenths of a percentage point to 12.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2025, Colliers said, driven by more than 136,000 square feet of positive net absorption. Most of that activity was focused on top-tier properties such as One60 Elgin, where owner Groupe Mach has inked several new occupiers to what Colliers described as “significant leases” in the past months.

Among the tenants signing deals to move into the building were the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, which took over more than 62,000 square feet of space in the class-A highrise. While the downtown vacancy rate remains higher than the percentage of empty office space in suburban neighbourhoods, Whiting says downtown landlords have been aggressively trying to revamp their properties with amenities such as gyms, remodelled common areas and modernized meeting spaces. The result, she says, is a “big flight to quality” that has seen high-profile organizations such as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada that previously rented office space farther from downtown relocate closer to the core. Whiting thinks more such moves are coming down the pipeline, noting that “big groups” are checking out vacant space in marquee properties such as Minto Place.  She cited the example of a “big accounting firm” that is currently headquartered outside of the core but is actively touring properties downtown with an eye to a potential change of venues.  “I think big groups that may have passed on the core in the past are reconsidering their business objectives and perhaps looking at (locating) downtown again, where they may not have a couple of years ago,” Whiting said. “We are seeing some bigger tenants in bigger industries that may not have ever considered downtown looking at 50,000-square-foot pockets. Landlords are incentivizing a lot downtown because of that, and I think there’s just as much opportunity now in the core as there is in the suburban markets.” Owners of downtown office complexes are being “very proactive” when it comes to reimagining their properties, she added.  As an example, Whiting pointed to LaSalle Investment Management, which recently built three new model suites in its 20-storey office tower at 275 Slater St. The fully furnished “plug-and-play” units were occupied within six months, she said. “We’ve seen a lot of success within the Ottawa market with model suites, and we're seeing a lot of landlords being proactive with model suites because they see the success,” Whiting noted. Meanwhile, she said, more and more landlords of lower-tier properties are realizing they need to shake things up if they want their buildings to remain viable. Some aging office towers are now being converted into residential complexes, for example, while Live Nation is turning the former Chapters building on Rideau Street into a 2,000-seat entertainment hall. “We’re seeing some landlords get creative with different niches other than office space,” Whiting said. The veteran broker says she believes it all adds up to a bright future for the downtown office market. “We spend a lot of time at our office space and people want to be in top-tier complexes that have great amenities … and lots of things to offer other than just brick and mortar. It’s making people excited. If you walk downtown these days, it’s definitely a lot busier than it was a couple of years ago.”