For lessons on city transformation, Canada's capital should look at Manhattan in New York City where the area around the World Trade Center was reimagined in a way few thought possible.
Mary Rowe, president and chief executive of the Canadian Urban Institute, told the Ottawa Real Estate Forum about how after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. business capital was in shock trying to figure out what would happen with the area of Lower Manhattan that had been a monoculture dominated by the finance sector during the day but primarily empty at night.
"Someone said, 'We should increase different kinds of uses down there,' and people just thought no one would live down there, and today it is one of the most vibrant urban neighbourhoods in the world," said Rowe at the event held last month.
Many of the challenges across Canada are "ones that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic," Rowe said. "We struggled with parts of cities that were only one use, known as a monoculture. They were a business use, but we underwent this extraordinary rupture. The patterns are gone, and we can exploit the opportunities."
Ottawa has been hit especially hard because of its focus on government workers who continue to work from home and are no longer part of the foot traffic in the downtown core, even as the federal government in December 2022 ordered workers back to the office two to three days a week. The order went into effect in March 2023.
"In cities with a diverse economy, there is constant churn. You have insulated from that for years because of one employer, but that one employer is changing its pattern of work," Rowe said. "You have an extraordinary opportunity."
More Movement Back Into Offices
Scott Brooker, vice president of commercial investments with Cushman & Wakefield, said there has been movement back into offices with cell phone data showing downtown Ottawa traffic is up to 50% of what it was before the pandemic.
"I used to live on the edge of the core, go to work downtown and walk home, and everything was closed. I would never go back to the core at night. There was nothing," said Brooker. But that is changing, he said.
Sueling Ching, president and chief executive of the Ottawa Board of Trade, said businesses downtown face some challenges of raising costs but have even more complex issues.
"The business downtown has been disproportionately impacted by these last few years," said Ching, adding many have major debt. "The foot traffic has just not returned. But I agree there is an opportunity to work together to imagine what our downtown could be in a way we did not conceive before the pandemic."
Hugh Gorman, chief executive of Colonnade Bridgeport, a significant landlord in Ottawa, said there is more foot traffic but it is predominantly only two days a week.
"You are seeing all sorts of challenges related to parking because people are not taking transit and only working two days a week and clogging up parking garages," said Gorman. "The thing is, two days a week is just not sustainable. How the office is used needs to fundamentally change."
The chief executive has been involved in a group that is looking at ways to improve the capital's downtown.
"We are making sure all levels of government understand the need to make a vibrant and resilient downtown core," said Gorman. "We need [government] to work with communities to create this."