Commercial Construction Spending in Edmonton and Calgary

In the first quarter of this year, both cities experienced close to the same level of commercial building spending: $653 million in Calgary and $634 million in Edmonton (seasonally adjusted). Given the extraordinarily high level of office tower construction in Calgary in 2014 and 2015, the pull-back in commercial spending comes as no surprise. With the high office vacancy rate in Calgary, ATB predicts an even greater drop in commercial construction spending through the rest of 2017.

Overall commercial construction spending in Alberta—including areas outside Edmonton and Calgary—clocked in at $1.56 billion in the first quarter of the year. That’s still down nearly 20 per cent from the record-high quarter (Q1 of 2015), but it’s only 6% down from the 10-year average of $1.65 billion.

Read the full article from ATB here