26 replies to this topic

[Barrrister]

I do not think it is just a matter of WFH, peoples budgets are generally getting tighter. I also wonder if downtown is starting to shed jobs? Does anyone keep stats on this? it seems a number of businesses seemed to have moved out of the downtown core rather quietly.

[Matt R.]

The Victoria market is so saturated for restaurants. Closures were and are inevitable. More to come I am sure.

[JohnsonStBridge]

Oh, has it gone already? Sitting empty?

 

Yes it closed up a few months back. The space is currently a pop-up art gallery with a For Lease sign up.

[Matt R.]

What?  Where was it?

[m3m]

The Victoria market is so saturated for restaurants. Closures were and are inevitable. More to come I am sure.

Heard rumblings about tapa bar closing. Wonder if there’s any truth to that.

[AllseeingEye]

I do not think it is just a matter of WFH, peoples budgets are generally getting tighter. I also wonder if downtown is starting to shed jobs? Does anyone keep stats on this? it seems a number of businesses seemed to have moved out of the downtown core rather quietly.

 

Tech and specifically the large system and third party consulting-integration firms, is definitely going through transition in terms of d/t headcount.

 

Maximus, my outfit, has already been discussed here; their eventual foot print and headcount will be greatly diminished downtown once the HIBC contract is fully absorbed by Pac Blue Cross. That process should be substantially complete by early June.

 

Similarly Fujitsu, which probably peaked a dozen or more years ago at ~ 100(ish) bodies in International House at 880 Douglas is a wisp of what it once was. AFAIK, anecdotally, I've heard they eventually bailed on IH with the advent of Covid and "WFH". At one point they had 2+ floors in that building. Also the depth and breadth of their BCG contracts has slowly and surely ebbed from their heyday. I believe their primary and possibly only major contract of any import is the CAS (corporate accounting system) with the Education ministry. They've had that one since forever....like since Netscape Navigator and the Razor flip fone dominated their respective markets...

 

Also NTT Data, aka Sierra Systems, like Maximus had a large headcount in a d/t five floor office on Courtney St; the lease remains but the vast majority of their staff have been WFH for 3+ years with no plans to return any time soon if at all. On average these days literally a small handful of warm bodies actually physically works there.

 

And like Fujitsu before them several years ago the NTT corporate mother ship in Tokyo has mandated that its Canadian operations become folded under and into the US umbrella so instead of Fujitsu or NTT "Canada", we have Fujitsu (and now NTT) "North America". Don't know how that will play out for jobs locally in the core for NTT but I do know it didn't go too well for the local Fujitsu contingent after they fell under US management. The (local) culture was significantly changed and not at all for the better.

[Mike K.]

Heard rumblings about tapa bar closing. Wonder if there’s any truth to that.

What!?!?