But the pandemic’s prolonged economic and workplace effects led to some businesses resorting to releasing their office spaces. Downtown’s office vacancy rate fell from 2.6% in late 2019 to 6.6% in late 2020, which is still considered low. The vacancy rate is forecast to push further upwards to 8.6% in 2021. Most of the new vacancies during this period were from smaller and older spaces.
New office projects were still pushed forward during the pandemic, with 3.8 million sq ft of office space under construction and an additional 2.6 million sq ft proposed. The first major projects from the office construction boom that began before the pandemic are scheduled for completion in 2022 and 2023, including Oxford’s The Stack at 1133 Melville Street and The Post (Amazon) at 349 West Georgia Street.