Space is limited in downtown Saskatoon with office space leasing at a premium rate.
The city center has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country, and the city is predicting big growth and even bigger construction projects.
Three office buildings are currently under construction in the downtown area, and much of the space is already leased.
Saskatchewan's largest commercial brokerage firm, ICR Commerical, says competitive prices here are attracting large, national companies.
Beth Barber from ICR says Saskatoon's downtown has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country, at 0.3 per cent. "We don't even have very much older, not as attractive office space sitting vacant because there's so much demand and so little inventory."
ICR says large, national corporations are moving to Saskatoon because of the resource industry and the competitive prices.
The city expects to grow by 100,000 people in the next 15 years. And to keep up, Saskatoon will need at least another 6 million square feet of office and retail space, half of it in the downtown area.
Randy Grauer works with the planning and development office for the city. "There's a lot of development interest as you can imagine, not only in the office space but in the office, hotel and retail all over the city."
As the city grows, the flow of people in and out of downtown also needs to be addressed.
"Any real estate that's close to public transit whether it's residential or office or retail, doubles its chance for success. So the city's obligation, moving forward, is to build a great transit system," says Grauer.
And hopefully that will help alleviate the parking issue. The three newest office buildings do include parking, but it's not a city requirement.
The new south bridge is expected to improve downtown traffic congestion, and make Idylwyld Drive more attractive to development.
The city says there are at least another half dozen big projects in the works for the downtown, warehouse, and Broadway areas.
