They lease the most downtown office space of any industry sector in B.C., but high-technology companies are also among the most demanding tenants, according to office lease agents.
Technology and digital firms, including giants such as Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN), are now the principal downtown office clients, leasing approximately 740,000 square feet of space.
Such firms account for four out of 10 tenants that hold 50,000 square feet or more and make up 34.2% of all office space this year, according to Colliers International. As a comparison, law firms, once a dominant player, now account for 10.3% of downtown leases. More than 100,000 tech professionals work in B.C. – about three-quarters of them in Vancouver – generating more than $23 billion in revenue and $15 billion in gross domestic product. Even so, tech companies do not need more office space per employee than traditional businesses.
“They need less,” says Robin Buntain, vice-president of office leasing for Avison Young. “Their per-square-foot density per person is less than a law firm because most of the people are in open workstations, so generally their work areas are pretty tight, but then you have amenity space.”
The tech tenants are great for landlords, but they come with challenges, agreed Colin Scarlett, executive vice-president of Colliers in Vancouver. Tech companies want flexible leases because their staff teams tend to increase or contract more than in other sectors.
“Their demands and requirements are diametrically opposed to a landlord’s requirements,” which require long-range planning, Scarlett said.
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