Details on exactly who and how many Imperial Oil employees will move to Calgary next year remain sketchy.

But one thing is for sure. When it comes to boosting residential real estate sales in Calgary’s already-booming economy, the announcement of an impending head-office relocation involving up to 500 employees is a great way to fuel market optimism as the resale market moves toward the end of another good year.

With Royal LePage Relocation Services (RLRS) handling the relocation contract, Teri-Ann Begin of Re/Max Realty (Central) knows she’s not likely to be assigned any of the individual homebuyers Imperial Oil is sending west as part of the head-office relocation the company announced in late September.

But the long-time realtor, who worked with several newcomers when CP Rail moved to Calgary in 1996, says this latest relocation is exciting all the same.

Shannon Oatway, Business Edge
Re/Max agent Teri-Ann Begin is excited by what Imperial Oil’s move will mean to Calgary market.

“This was wonderful news,” says Begin. With Calgary realtors already selling between 65 to 70 properties a day in mid-November 2004, an extra 500 buyers spread over several months of 2005 is not likely to have a big impact on sales or prices. “But it gives everyone renewed confidence in this city’s real estate market and reinforces that this is a wonderful place to live and invest.”

Imperial Oil is the last major oil company to move its head office to Calgary. The company, whose historic discovery of oil at Leduc played a key role in the development of Alberta’s modern oil industry, has offices in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, with plant operations in Halifax, Sarnia and Nanticoke, Ont., and Edmonton and Cold Lake. The company owns 25 per cent of the Syncrude Canada joint venture currently undergoing a major expansion in Alberta.

About 1,500 of the 3,000 people Imperial Oil employs in Ontario are based in Toronto and approximately one-third of that Toronto group will be asked to move, says company spokesman Gordon Wong. Wong expects those moves to begin next spring and wind up by the end of August.

With a relocation project team now in place, Wong says the company is working out the specific details about whom it wants in Calgary. All corporate departments will be headquartered in Calgary, the confirmed hub of the Canadian petroleum industry.

“Once employees know whether they’re going, (RLRS) will be providing consultation and counselling to the employees about the things they need to do in terms of the sale of their homes here in Toronto (and) the things they need to think about in terms of looking for homes in Calgary,” says Lisa DaRocha of RLRS’s Toronto office.

Based in Toronto, RLRS is Canada’s oldest and largest full-service relocation company.

Operating as a separate entity from Royal LePage real estate services, RLRS handles about 80 per cent of the country’s relocations market, including major contracts with the Department of National Defence and RCMP.

“We’ve worked with Imperial Oil in their employment mobility (program)” for several years, says DaRocha. Although she’s not able to comment on details of this specific project, DaRocha admits a relocation involving this many employees is a big project.

RLRS will help Imperial Oil employees and their families source information on a range of topics from neighbourhoods to schools, medical care, spousal employment and commute times. With a growing number of Canadian families concerned with caring for older relatives, eldercare could be another area the relocation specialists help the newcomers negotiate. “There really is no typical group move,” adds DaRocha.

Imperial Oil has also added relocation information to its intranet website. It will be updated as decisions are made, says Wong.

Even though some aspects of the relocation plan are still in the early stages, office space has been secured in downtown Calgary, adds Wong. Imperial Oil is currently based in the west tower of Fifth Avenue Place.

“We’ve acquired some additional floors in that tower,” says Wong. “We’ve also acquired some floors in the east tower, as well as some space in the BP Centre across the street. So they’re all in very close proximity.”

Decisions about where specific departments will be located have not been made yet.

“We do, for example, have an HR group in Calgary and one in Toronto,” says Wong.

“Whether they can all fit in the same space or there will be another space which will be more appropriate for them all to be located at, that’s still being worked out.”

Begin expects the Imperial Oil employees moving west will stick by the realtors they’ve been assigned through the relocation company hired to help with the move. And that’s fine with her.

Based on past experience, she’s convinced the additional buyers will source houses right across the city.

In a business where most transactions involve one realtor working for the vendor and another for the buyer, that means additional buyers for her own clients’ homes.

Better yet, these buyers will be motivated by the need to settle in.

“A lot of our listings will be selling well,” predicts Begin.

(Joy Gregory can be reached at joy@businessedge.ca))