Building on parking lots, office building conversions, and a gift from local developers: Highlights from the State of the City Address

Mayor Josh Morgan touted new housing strategies and progress on the city’s homelessness strategy in his second State of the City Address on Thursday morning.

Mayor Josh Morgan touted new housing strategies and progress on the city’s homelessness strategy in his second State of the City Address.

On Thursday, more than 1,200 local business leaders attended the RBC Place Convention Centre to hear the mayor’s annual speech about recent municipal accomplishments and his priorities for the coming year.

Morgan focused most of his attention on homelessness and the housing crisis, including a new Community Improvement Plan (CIP) that will offer financial incentives to convert vacant downtown office space into residential units.

The office vacancy rate is almost 30 per cent in downtown London.

“Our program proposes a grant of $20,000 for single bedroom apartments, and $28,000 for apartments of two or more bedrooms. The opportunity to breathe new life into these buildings is immense,” he told the audience.

Morgan suggested funding for the CIP come out of the $74 million awarded to London from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.

Meanwhile, the mayor also pitched a first-of-its-kind plan to partner with private developers to transform some core area municipal parking lots into residential buildings with public parking in the garages.