From Office Space to Living Space: How the City is Transforming the Core Through Grants

From Office Space to Living Space: How the City is Transforming the Core Through Grants

The City of London is currently in their Public Engagement phase of the Downtown Plan and there is an opportunity for Londoners to get involved and help shape the core of their city. As this plan is created, the City relies on Londoners and London businesses to provide input into what changes and improvements need to be made in order to enhance the downtown’s economic capacity and residential appeal. This plan will address issues that the downtown area is currently facing such as commercial vacancies and aging infrastructure.

One of the many ways that the City is planning to address this is through various loan and grant programs such as the Office-to-Residential Construction Conversion Grant. This program offers a per-unit loan of up to $35,000 for eligible office-to-residential conversions. The latest project to take advantage of this grant is at 685 Richmond St. with 41 new residential units in a former office space being developed on top of the existing retail space. Along with two other projects that are receiving this grant, the total office-to-residence conversions would represent 150 new units at over 185,000 square feet which will help to reduce the current office vacancy rate of 32%.

Another program the city has begun to offer through the Downtown Plan is the Vacant Commercial Space Fit-out Grant. This grant will also help to reduce the amount of vacant spaces in the core by providing businesses owners with up to $50,000 to cover 50% of their improvement costs for commercial spaces. The program currently has $975,000 budgeted for it with a target of 15 to 25 projects a year until 2027.

In order to ensure the viability of these programs and the Downtown Plan as a whole, the city relies on input from Londoners and now is the best time to have your voice heard. Improvements to our core will only happen when more people live, work, and walk downtown. To have your say, please visit: https://getinvolved.london.ca/downtownplan