Imperial Oil building office in Quarry Park

[Saint Troy]

Should be a pretty sweet space, following the Exxon Mobil campus format. The employees were 50/50 on staying downtown, so this will certainly be a controversial move internally. Wouldn't be surprised to see research moved there in the second phase.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by macker

Rise against little boxes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQ3piGHIi8

Most pretentious song ever, and I'm pretty anti-suburbs.

[Mr.Coffee]

...must...resist...many...hilarious... Imperial stories.

Some pretty weird comments in this thread about ol' Esso. "I heard that once you go in, you NEVER COME OUT!" It feels like a late-night-campfire-with-a-flashlight-in-the-face in this thread.

Anyway, if I worked there and they made this move it'd be goodbye in a second. In my career there's not a chance in hell I would kill my career by isolating myself like that. Many other professions require the close network too. They really do make some odd decisions, but at the end of the day, they really are majority owned by the world's largest oil company. I know lots of guys there, will be fun to see the reaction. My prediction, the younger staff will vacate (or try).

edit: also yes, they do hire experienced people, and yes, people do leave their company too. Just like any other company. Weird, I know.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I worked in Quarry Park for a year, commuting from Hillhurst. Too kabout 45 minutes of driving a day. Terrible location for being "connected" to downtown. You're isolated, and forget about quick meetings with clients or contacts. The 1.5 hr return drive to downtown is never justifiable.

IF you live in the deep south and your goal is to just be a 8-5'er this I'll be great for them. But look at Bell's experience - they moved all their staff 3-4 years ago to a NE industrial park and I see they have promptly moved some headofffice staff back to Palliser South.

As people have pointed out - IOL marches to the beat of their own drum. People come to you, not the other way around. Maybe this will work. Maybe not.

There's just no substitute for being downtown in Calgary Business.

[pepper24]

Terrible decision. No LRT access so you need either a car or bus. Way to alienate all employees who live in the North or core. I think you need to be where the action is and where your competitors are which is downtown. Downtown where they have LRT access and everything is walkable for meetings, lunches etc. They make enough coin and should pony up like Encana/Cenovus did for a new tower if they are tight on space. Being isolated is terrible for business and employees.

Also a terrible direction for Calgary. For years Calgary has been moving towards the model of Houston and Dallas. Terrible cities with sprawling suburbs, bad traffic and a fat population due to being car dependent. The downtowns of Houston and Dallas/Forth Worth are dead especially for such large of cities. I've been to both the Exxon campus in Irving, TX (Dallas/Fort Worth suburb) and the BP campus in Katy, TX (Houston suburb). Suburban working jails with nothing around them.

It seemed like Calgary was gradually moving away with a focus on downtown but this puts a bump into it. Calgary needs to be more like New York and Chicago. Great cities with good cores, tons to do and not car dependent.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Also a terrible direction for Calgary. For years Calgary has been moving towards the model of Houston and Dallas. Terrible cities with sprawling suburbs, bad traffic and a fat population due to being car dependent. The downtowns of Houston and Dallas/Forth Worth are dead especially for such large of cities. I've been to both the Exxon campus in Irving, TX (Dallas/Fort Worth suburb) and the BP campus in Katy, TX (Houston suburb). Suburban working jails with nothing around them.

"White flight"

[4X4]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I worked in Quarry Park for a year, commuting from Hillhurst. Too kabout 45 minutes of driving a day. Terrible location for being "connected" to downtown. You're isolated, and forget about quick meetings with clients or contacts. The 1.5 hr return drive to downtown is never justifiable.

45 minutes in rush hour maybe. If you're going to meet someone during the day, it's more like 20 minutes each direction.

[Northendzone]

Omg, imperial oil is moving and now we are all getting fat.

I am never buying gas at ESso again!!!

[polak]

Yeah serious over-reactions here.

The North-South commute is usually under an hour. I used to do it every day and now I work for a company downtown and I have no choice but to take the train and I hate it. I HATE the train. It only saves literally 10 minutes off my old commute on average, I'm packed in like sardines, standing while everyone reaches over or around you to have something to hold on too, the older trains are hot and disgustingly humid and there's no room for your stuff anywhere.

Maybe if transit got it together and added more trains, with more cars so that you don't have people fighting to get on the train at rush hour cause it's so packed (Especially for Somerset) my opinion would change.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by pepper24

Terrible decision. No LRT access so you need either a car or bus. Way to alienate all employees who live in the North or core. I think you need to be where the action is and where your competitors are which is downtown. Downtown where they have LRT access and everything is walkable for meetings, lunches etc. They make enough coin and should pony up like Encana/Cenovus did for a new tower if they are tight on space. Being isolated is terrible for business and employees.

Also a terrible direction for Calgary. For years Calgary has been moving towards the model of Houston and Dallas. Terrible cities with sprawling suburbs, bad traffic and a fat population due to being car dependent. The downtowns of Houston and Dallas/Forth Worth are dead especially for such large of cities. I've been to both the Exxon campus in Irving, TX (Dallas/Fort Worth suburb) and the BP campus in Katy, TX (Houston suburb). Suburban working jails with nothing around them.

It seemed like Calgary was gradually moving away with a focus on downtown but this puts a bump into it. Calgary needs to be more like New York and Chicago. Great cities with good cores, tons to do and not car dependent.

I don't think this will start some kind of great movement out of downtown. Most companies recognize the business synergies with close proximity to partners and competitors, banking and fund houses, central access for employees living all over the city vs. in 1 quadrant, etc. The problem is that rent is high in the core, so if you're a business trying to save money on leases, it makes sense to leave. I wonder how much analysis, however, has gone into the cost advantage on downtown rent vs. the other costs that will now escalate with isolating your people (ie. replacing staff that are now pissy).

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by pepper24

T

It seemed like Calgary was gradually moving away with a focus on downtown but this puts a bump into it. Calgary needs to be more like New York and Chicago. Great cities with good cores, tons to do and not car dependent.

I can't wait for the days of multiple million dollar condos in downtown Calgary.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by polak

Yeah serious over-reactions here.

The North-South commute is usually under an hour. I used to do it every day and now I work for a company downtown and I have no choice but to take the train and I hate it. I HATE the train. It only saves literally 10 minutes off my old commute on average, I'm packed in like sardines, standing while everyone reaches over or around you to have something to hold on too, the older trains are hot and disgustingly humid and there's no room for your stuff anywhere.

Maybe if transit got it together and added more trains, with more cars so that you don't have people fighting to get on the train at rush hour cause it's so packed (Especially for Somerset) my opinion would change.

They are doing just that, upgrading all the platforms to accommodate 4 car trains, however as for the frequency problem the issue is 7th avenue is a HUGE bottleneck now in the system. I don't think it has any excess capacity during the rush hours to handle more trains.

One of our resident transit geeks can probably speak to that in more detail than I can.

[secol]

it's not just trains though, if they increased the frequency/consistency of buses i bet more people would take them during rush hour instead of the LRT. when it gets colder i don't want to stand around in the freezing cold hoping the bus will be there on time, i'd probably rather cram myself into the LRT and walk 15 minutes home in the freezing cold from the LRT station.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by polak

Yeah serious over-reactions here.

So my proposal to nuke Quarry Park is too much then?

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by secol

it's not just trains though, if they increased the frequency/consistency of buses i bet more people would take them during rush hour instead of the LRT. when it gets colder i don't want to stand around in the freezing cold hoping the bus will be there on time, i'd probably rather cram myself into the LRT and walk 15 minutes home in the freezing cold from the LRT station.

Those same transit geeks I mentioned in my other response can probably also supply a very good reason why you can't just add a bunch of buses and expect the same capacity and speed of the LRT.

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by 4X4

45 minutes in rush hour maybe. If you're going to meet someone during the day, it's more like 20 minutes each direction.

Hell, I got to Quarry Park in 20 minutes during rush hour yesterday. It is all about avoiding Deerfoot.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by 4X4

45 minutes in rush hour maybe. If you're going to meet someone during the day, it's more like 20 minutes each direction.

So, 20 minutes in each direction is pretty close to 45 minutes of driving each day. I think you guys are saying the same thing.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by 4X4

45 minutes in rush hour maybe. If you're going to meet someone during the day, it's more like 20 minutes each direction.

Not if you're leaving between 11:30 and 1:30, going from Macleod to Blackfoot to Deeerfoot. Put in time to park downtown too and walk to your meeting site. Suddenly that quick meeting downtown isn't so quick.

[Claeren]

The city needs to work on easing its downtown parking stall caps. It made sense for a while (drive up the cost of parking so that people commuting are inclined to use transit) but that time has now come and gone. LRT will continue to be popular regardless and the IOL would be less inclined to vacate. Parking costs alone are a major drain on peoples finances.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

So, 20 minutes in each direction is pretty close to 45 minutes of driving each day. I think you guys are saying the same thing.

He said an hour and a half. Just a slight exaggeration. Though I do agree that it still wouldn't be at all ideal to go for a quick meeting. I just was being picky because it kind of struck me like the opposite of Airdrie commuters claiming that they can get DT in 20 minutes.

On topic, I did some work on those townhouse condos there in Quarry park, and got to know the area and the traffic patterns a bit. 24th St is already over capacity. Good luck getting out of there at 5pm if there are another few thousand people working in the area. That right turn on to 24th from 18th will be backed up all the way to the Jacob building.