John Savard is the Owner and Principal Broker of Bedrock Realty Advisors. With more than 15 years of commercial real estate experience, he specializes in tenant representation, office leasing, lease renewals, and subleasing. John has helped hundreds of businesses secure strategic commercial spaces and negotiate favorable lease agreements throughout Calgary.
Bedrock Realty is excited to be quoted in the recent issue of Business in Calgary Magazine.
Bedrock’s Owner John Savard is quoted in the article, “State of the Core,” an informative business piece discussing the current state of downtown Calgary’s office sector.
John Savard, owner at Bedrock Realty Advisors, notes this flight to quality doesn’t mean there still isn’t demand for B and C class properties.
“We just have to get through a significant amount of vacancy,” he says. “But there’s still demand in B to C class. In fact, there are a significant number of tenants who enjoy the mid-west portion of downtown Calgary because the rates are considerably lower than A class.”
As expected, the Bank of Canada has raised its key lending rate by 50 basis points, bringing it to 1.50%.
In its statement accompanying the decision, the Bank said, “the risk of elevated inflation becoming entrenched has risen” and that it is “prepared to act more forcefully if needed” to achieve its 2% inflation target.
What happens now?
In the coming days, banks and other financial institutions are expected to follow the Bank of Canada’s lead and hike their prime lending rate, which is used to price variable-rate mortgages and personal and home equity lines of credit (HELOC).
If you have a fixed-rate mortgage, you will see no change to your rates.
We will continue to monitor developments. Please give First Avenue Financial a call if you’re concerned about the impact rising rates may have on your financial situation so we can discuss your options!
This blog as has been reposted from First Avenue Financial. Read the original.
After a long stretch of empty office spaces and overall gloom and doom in Calgary’s downtown office space, it looks like the tide is finally turning.
“It’s really been quite a dreary time for Calgary’s downtown office space in recent years,” says John Savard, owner of Bedrock Realty Advisors. “We’ve seen a lot of factors, both pre-and post-pandemic which led to high vacancy rates for the last few years.”
Taking a walk downtown is all you need to see to understand just how empty Calgary’s downtown has become since the 2014 oil and gas bust, followed closely by a pandemic which aggravated an already slow market. This resulted in the city hitting a new vacancy milestone, with one-third of Calgary office space vacant and negative absorption since 2017.
But as of Q4 of 2021, we’re starting to see a turn in the market.
“In Q4 we actually hit the first positive absorption since 2017,” says Savard. “It wasn’t huge at just under 18,000 sq. ft., but it gives us some optimism that the tide is turning.”
CBRE, Avison Young and other real estate and investment groups seem to agree. As the Covid pandemic restrictions ease, return-to-work policies come back into place and industries like tech and oil and gas start to burgeon, the future is starting to look bright in Calgary’s downtown office space again.
“We’re starting to see the growth of the tech industry bringing in a lot of new leases,” says Savard. “And oil and gas commodity prices are really bringing a vitality back to the market, pushing economic activity and bringing new tenants back to the downtown as they look to re-hire and repopulate their operations.”
Savard says this has been a mix of new tenants and tenants looking to relocate from the suburbs, a market that may have previously been unavailable or out of their price range. “There is a lot of great space out there, high quality space is still abundant and well-priced, but we do expect that to change.”
Forecasters see slow but steady growth coming back to Calgary’s office space market, meaning moderate price increases and decreasing vacancy rate. “This will first come to the higher quality spaces, which are already seeing lower vacancy rates,” says Savard. “But it will eventually cascade to all the other classes of office space as well.”
For people who are looking for downtown office space, Savard says now is the time to make your move.
“If you’re looking for office space in Calgary’s downtown, especially higher quality space, it’s time to take advantage and lock in those affordable lease rates. There is still a lot of choices available, but you’ll want to get in while the market is still relatively soft.”
If you want to look for space online, you can do it right from this website. Check out our Commercial Lease Search Engine – this easy tool will allow you to quickly find the downtown office space that suits your needs. Just enter your criteria and we’ll send you a report with your results.
If you have any questions about Bedrock Realty Advisors, contact us.
We are searching for a talented salesperson to join our busy Calgary Commercial Leasing office!
Want to be a part of something big with huge potential for growth? Join us at Bedrock Realty Advisors Inc., one of the fastest-growing commercial office leasing brokerages in Calgary. EARN MORE with LESS EFFORT and be part of our growth. We are looking for a real estate leasing agent to start ASAP.
We have more leads than we can handle and we are looking for someone with experience to help us close the deals.
Only one spot available – inquire now!
If interested, please send your resume to John Savard at john.savard@bedrockrealty.ca
We would prefer a licensed real estate agent with experience in commercial office leasing in Alberta. Applicants may be unlicensed if willing to take an internship and work toward getting their license. Compensation can be fixed or commission-based, or a combination of both, based on experience.
To learn more about us visit our site at www.bedrockrealty.ca.
BedRock Realty Advisors was recently recognized as a Powerbroker in a commercial real estate deal-making competition
In August 2020, CoStar Group, Inc., the data and analytics leader of the commercial real estate industry, announced the Power Brokers Quarterly Deals winners for the second quarter of 2020. We are excited to announce that BedRock Realty Advisors came out on top in the list of winners in Calgary. Power Brokers Quarterly Deals winners are determined by their top deals every quarter, based on price and square footage.
BedRock Realty Advisors work every day to get our clients the best deals on the best spaces. For help with all your leasing needs visit our Office Locator Tool and we’ll help you find the perfect new office space for you and your business.
Over the Christmas holidays, John Savard, Owner of Bedrock Realty, was quoted in an interesting article about one of downtown Calgary’s most unique (and largest) offices spaces available on the market right now.
“Gulf Canada Square is the length of two city blocks . . . it’s so unique. You won’t ever see that,” said Savard in the article. “Firstly, an 80,000-square-foot floor plate is extremely rare in the entire country and it’s the largest for an office space. That’s the largest base building space that exists (for lease) in Calgary and the country.”
You can learn more about this available space in the full article.
