![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/wp-content\/uploads\/officebuilding.jpg\" "\\"officebuilding\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nPrime office space available downtown.<\/p>\n
According to a report on office real estate by Colliers International, 45 per cent of office space in the capital region is occupied by the federal Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cOttawa is protected like it\u2019s in a little bubble because of the government,\u201d says Kelvin Holmes, managing director of real estate Colliers International,<\/p>\n
The public service is not susceptible to ups and downs in the economy like the private sector, and because the federal government occupies so much of the office space in Ottawa, vacancy rates have remained low.<\/p>\n
Potechin says this could make it hard to attract companies to Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to attract companies that want to be located downtown because they want the prestige of being downtown. Some companies aren\u2019t interested in offices that are out of the core of the city\u201d<\/p>\n
Struggles in Kanata<\/span><\/p>\n Although most of Ottawa fared well during the recession, the downturn did affect some areas of the city.<\/p>\n The vacancy rate in Kanata rose to 20 per cent during the recession.\u00a0 The west-end Ottawa community already had higher vacancy rates because of the high-tech collapse which worsened in the past year.<\/p>\n That has improved slightly in recent months as the current rate is 16.4%Potechin says that companies in Ottawa are looking to Kanata for office space because other parts of the city don\u2019t have offices, \u201cThere\u2019s not much of office space in Orleans and Hunt Club, Kanata has the most.\u201d<\/p>\n However, experts say the vacancy rate in Kanata could drop even further in 2010 due to the fact that there is virtually nowhere else to find office space in Ottawa.<\/p>\n Joel Edelson, Chairman of the Ottawa Real Estate Board\u2019s commercial services division,\u00a0 says\u00a0 finding space is tough, \u201cThe biggest problem is that there is not a lot out there.\u201d .<\/p>\n Property inside the Greenbelt, 203.5 square kilometres of green space within the boundaries of Ottawa which is owned by the National Capital Commission (NCC), is hard to find because the majority of the land is owned and developed by the City of Ottawa, the federal government or the NCC.<\/p>\n This has made it difficult for companies to find inexpensive office space in the core of the city.\u201cReal estate is supply and demand. If there is a shortage of product for sale, the prices don\u2019t go down. If there isn\u2019t a lot of supply the prices will remain high,\u201d says Potechin. \u201cOther than in Kanata, there\u2019s not a lot for sale in the city of Ottawa, this makes it difficult for companies that want to buy and develop their own product.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving away from the city’s core.<\/p>\n Holmes says the combination of low vacancy and high prices may lead companies to start looking for property outside the Greenbelt.<\/p>\n