Manulife Development Project

[BruceAshe]

Also work for Manulife:  The interior has been removed of much of it's 80's mall like feel.  The only real item left that hints to it once being a sign of the 80's are the narrow escalators between floors.  The main stair case to the 2nd floor was almost triangular, but it's been replaced with a more modern staircase.

There is also that area in the basement that has hints of the former food court.

[panamaniac]

Also work for Manulife:  The interior has been removed of much of it's 80's mall like feel.  The only real item left that hints to it once being a sign of the 80's are the narrow escalators between floors.  The main stair case to the 2nd floor was almost triangular, but it's been replaced with a more modern staircase.

There is also that area in the basement that has hints of the former food court.

That will be the first area to be repurposed, I'd wager.

[jeffster]

I'm disappointed - part of me has long hoped that they'd eventually consolidate in the King Centre, and finally build the darn tower on that clunky podium!

It is disappointing. Though it did get me thinking, with all the construction over the next 2 years or so, I'd imagine there will be a goo amount of noise that might not make working there ideal.

Guess we'll have to wait and see how this all pans out. Hopefully they'l get another tenant in there in good time.

[KevinL]

It sounds like good quality office space. Its proximity to LRT should find a tenant or tenants without too much trouble.

[GtwoK]

On the other side of the coin though.... If they'll no longer need the parking lot between it and the tannery for whatever future parking garage or whatever that they planned, that's gotta be busted wide open to developers pretty soon

[tomh009]

It sounds like good quality office space. Its proximity to LRT should find a tenant or tenants without too much trouble.

It might not be so easy to subdivide for smaller tenants, though. Admittedly I have never been inside since it became Manulife.

[ijmorlan]

It sounds like good quality office space. Its proximity to LRT should find a tenant or tenants without too much trouble.

It might not be so easy to subdivide for smaller tenants, though. Admittedly I have never been inside since it became Manulife.

It used to be subdivided for smaller tenants, when it was a mall. Of course all of those partitions might have been removed, but it’s definitely possible.

[tomh009]

It might not be so easy to subdivide for smaller tenants, though. Admittedly I have never been inside since it became Manulife.

It used to be subdivided for smaller tenants, when it was a mall. Of course all of those partitions might have been removed, but it’s definitely possible.

Yes -- but mall retail spaces tend to have windows facing the centre of the mall only, whereas with office space natural light is generally desirable, as one primary example. Manulife has done a lot of work to improve the quality of the office space, but those improvements may not carry over so well if the space is subdivided.

But as I said, I have not been inside the building recently so this may not be the case.

[Coke6pk]

Unrelated note, the giant windows in the building that face the upcoming Charlie West property, I noticed were boarded up last week. (Maybe they have always been boarded... I can't recall if they were actually windows or not). Will this be an expensive window into the side of another building? Whats on the other side of that plywood?

Coke

[danbrotherston]

Unrelated note, the giant windows in the building that face the upcoming Charlie West property, I noticed were boarded up last week.  (Maybe they have always been boarded... I can't recall if they were actually windows or not).  Will this be an expensive window into the side of another building?  Whats on the other side of that plywood?

Coke

They are windows, but they boarded them up as construction began, I'm guessing its because of the risk of damage.

[robdrimmie]

From a floor plan perspective, there isn't much in the way of subdivided space. There are meeting rooms of various size blocked off here and there so it's not like a big indoor football field. but it's a very open plan. Most of the building gets good natural light, except for the afore-mentioned formerly food court area which will absolutely give you flash backs if you ever spent too much time there in your teens.

Dan has it exactly right with regards to the boarded windows, it's to protect them from work on Charlie. They are more of the green windows that were added to the building last summer or thereabouts?

I know only a very little about office space construction, but I think it would be pretty straightforward to subdivide it for tenants except for the problem of getting natural light into the middle of the building. It works well now because there are only a few walls. I've been in a couple of WeWork buildings in NYC and the solution for them converting entire high rise floors to smaller units is a lot of glass walls. So most everyone can see each other, but they're physically secured with locks. That requires management of the entire facility though.

[rangersfan]

Article from The Record talking about the opportunity that this move by Manulife may create for other companies.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/870...er-s-core/

[Lens]

Render from the "Ion Attracts" map document

[panamaniac]

First time we've seen a concept for that site, am I correct?

[KevinL]

Ground-floor retail has a 'food store' sign. Good to see.