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40-storey cap on midtown site
Yonge-Eglinton limit follows high-rise protest

Councillor Michael Walker offered a small amendment this week to the transfer of the old TTC bus barns on that corner to the Build Toronto property agency, limiting anything built there to 120 metres.

That means any private developer who later purchases the long-unused site wouldn't be able to exceed 40 storeys.

A 40 storey condo box equals approx. a 26 storey office building.:rolleyes:
 
Well, c'mon, a 26 storey office tower isn't exactly an easy sell at Yonge & Eglinton. (not to mention a 40 storey condo)
 
RioCan seems to think that another 12 floors of office space on top of its existing Yonge Eglinton Centre towers will be an easy sell.

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12 storeys isn't half of 26 and the situation is entirely different. RioCan has 700,000 (?) square feet of office space in need of serious upgrades to make it more competitive. (and I doubt the plan will be implemented anytime soon either)
 
Well, c'mon, a 26 storey office tower isn't exactly an easy sell at Yonge & Eglinton. (not to mention a 40 storey condo)

So why do you think that's the case ... for an office building that is?
 
RioCan has 750,000 square feet of office space in its two towers at 2300 Yonge Street and 20 Eglinton Avenue West, not counting the proposed additional space which they may or may not construct. I don't know how much space Canadian Tire will be vacating at 2180 Yonge Street, but it will be substantial.

I think the "elephant in the room", with regards to new development on the TTC lands, is the fact that leasing up a lot of new office space may be a hard sell. I can't see why they wouldn't do well selling new condos at this desirable location, but office space in large chunks is a different story.
 
RioCan has 750,000 square feet of office space in its two towers at 2300 Yonge Street and 20 Eglinton Avenue West, not counting the proposed additional space which they may or may not construct. I don't know how much space Canadian Tire will be vacating at 2180 Yonge Street, but it will be substantial.

I think the "elephant in the room", with regards to new development on the TTC lands, is the fact that leasing up a lot of new office space may be a hard sell. I can't see why they wouldn't do well selling new condos at this desirable location, but office space in large chunks is a different story.

Right but why? Taxes to high, rents? location maybe?
 
WRT office space, you're talking about new buildings with probably several hundred thousands of square feet of floor space. There are a limited number of companies who would lease such large amounts of space. The large banks, law firms, accounting firms, etc. who consider location important would all want to be in the core, or at least the Bloor Street corridor. Relatively few large tenants want to be at Yonge and Eglinton.

On the other hand you also have the companies who don't need to be in the central city. A large number of those have been simply moving to the 905, for a range of reasons including lower taxes.

You could aim new office space at smaller tenants, which I think is the situation in the existing Yonge - Eglinton Centre. It could certainly work, but most building owners would prefer fewer, larger tenants.
 
WRT office space, you're talking about new buildings with probably several hundred thousands of square feet of floor space. There are a limited number of companies who would lease such large amounts of space. The large banks, law firms, accounting firms, etc. who consider location important would all want to be in the core, or at least the Bloor Street corridor. Relatively few large tenants want to be at Yonge and Eglinton.

On the other hand you also have the companies who don't need to be in the central city. A large number of those have been simply moving to the 905, for a range of reasons including lower taxes.

You could aim new office space at smaller tenants, which I think is the situation in the existing Yonge - Eglinton Centre. It could certainly work, but most building owners would prefer fewer, larger tenants.

Understandable, but what makes - say Hi-way 7 and Warden that much more attractive. Is it just the tax and lower rent or are there are issues at play.
 
The obvious ... lower taxes, lower rents, cheap parking, better transportation infrastructure, etc.
 
It's the same problem that NYCC has with attracting new office space. No new office building has been built at NYCC for years, and they are very far off their original targets of how many office buildings they wanted in the area.

If you want a non-CBD office building with the same level of taxes, there better be a damn good reason why you'd even want to locate there. Big corporations don't care about 'city building', they just care about the bottom line.
 

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