As a commercial real estate broker who runs his own business, Denis Shank is not surprised that office vacancy rates in Ottawa’s downtown are on the rise while landlords in the suburbs are seeing more interest in their properties than they have in years. Shank, who launched Capworth Commercial Realty Brokerage in 2016, moved his […]
Already a Subscriber? Log in
Get Instant Access to This Article
Become an Ottawa Business Journal Insider and get immediate access to all of our Insider-only content and much more.
As a commercial real estate broker who runs his own business, Denis Shank is not surprised that office vacancy rates in Ottawa’s downtown are on the rise while landlords in the suburbs are seeing more interest in their properties than they have in years.
Shank, who launched Capworth Commercial Realty Brokerage in 2016, moved his office from Catherine Street in Centretown to its current location on Prince of Wales Drive during the pandemic.
Putting on his tenant hat, Shank says the decision to relocate was practically a no-brainer.
The new office is a shorter commute for him and his six on-site employees. The building offers access to amenities such as a pool and sauna. And – perhaps best of all – there’s plenty of free parking.
In addition, now that the Trillium north-south LRT line is open, Shank believes public transit will play a more “positive role” in making suburban office properties even more attractive to prospective occupants.
“All that combined, it’s a perfect climate for the burbs to continue flourishing in their vacancy absorption,” he said. “Bottom line, (in the) burbs, vacancy will continue to go down.”
New figures from Colliers suggest that’s exactly what’s happening.
The vacancy rate outside downtown Ottawa dropped nearly half a percentage point in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 10.6 per cent, the real estate firm said in its latest office market report released Thursday.
It marks the sixth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption in the suburban market. Vacancies declined in all suburban submarkets except the east end, where the rate ticked up less than a tenth of a percentage point to nine per cent.
Breaking down the suburban market, few areas of the city are hotter right now than Kanata, where clients in the tech and defence sectors are snapping up space at a steady clip.
The tech hub was the most active submarket in the city during the last three months of 2024. Colliers’ data shows that 17 new leases totalling 117,765 square feet were signed in Kanata in the quarter.
They accounted for some of Ottawa’s biggest deals in the closing months of 2024 – including Marvell Technologies’ lease for 32,371 square feet of space at 350 Legget Dr. and Pleora Technologies’ takeover of 17,600 square feet at 450 March Rd.
As a result, Kanata's vacancy rate dropped by more than a full percentage point compared with the previous quarter to 10.1 per cent, with 75,583 square feet of positive net absorption.
Veteran Colliers broker Lindsay Hockey says he and business partner Oliver Kershaw are practically being run off their feet responding to demand for space in the city’s far west end.
They recently brokered a deal with a major tech client that’s set to lease a 45,000-square-foot building on Terence Matthews Crescent in Kanata south and add 5,000 square feet of new lab space.
“The defence sector is strong right now,” Hockey explained. “We’ve seen growth with those groups in Kanata, either maintaining their footprint or growing. Just the tech sector in general, there’s just been good, continued growth. It’s helped Kanata hold its own of late.”
