A major Crown corporation has signed a long-awaited lease to occupy approximately 350,000 square feet inside the Plaza 234 office tower at the corner of Laurier Avenue and O’Connor Street, according to brokerage firm Colliers International.
The Bank of Canada is vacating its Wellington Street headquarters for renovations and will use Plaza 234 – the former home of Export Development Canada – as swing space while work is underway.
Bank of Canada officials were not immediately available for comment.
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The Department of Justice, which leased space inside the Bank of Canada building, is also being displaced and recently signed a lease for approximately 78,000 square feet inside the Sun Life Financial Centre.
The two moves mean there are no longer any pockets of contiguous space of 35,000 square feet or more available for direct lease in the downtown core, according to Colliers.
That will change in the next 12 to 18 months as Morguard completes its Performance Court tower at the corner of Elgin and Gloucester streets and the Canada Council for the Arts vacates its space at 350 Albert St. in the Constitution Square complex.
Additionally, two full floors inside the World Exchange Tower at 45 O’Connor St. will be vacated in the coming months as the Canadian Institute for Health Information consolidates its operations at its 495 Richmond Rd. location and Allstream relocates to 150 Laurier Ave.
Citywide, the office vacancy rate declined 110 basis points to 7.5 per cent at the end of the third quarter, according to Colliers statistics. The downtown core was slightly lower, at 5.6 per cent.
