[marcus_a_j]

The tracks are not the cause of the traffic around the area, it's due to the limited number of access points onto the Gardiner. Putting parking lots pretty much beside the largest public transportaton hub in the City is a step backwards. Putting these parking lots in will only encourage more car usage, whereas everyone is trying to reduce the reliance of the automobile within the GTA, especially downtown.

 

[ProjectEnd]

The point really is moot since the notion of decking over the rail tracks for a parking lot is economically infeasible. The legs which support the deck would, in turn, form the basis for the support structure of the building itself and installing such a large and expensive system for a flat plane such as a parking lot is asinine.

It's almost as silly as believing that the best way to treat the raw, unfinished underside of the Gardiner is to tear the whole structure down.


...or believing that there is a distinct 'Toronto Style.'

 

[Automation Gallery]

What a wild idea of a parking lot...thumbs down on that.

 

[allabootmatt]

Not for a while...




Toronto Office Vacancies May Top Boston, Manhattan (Update1)
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By Doug Alexander


Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A surge in office construction in Toronto’s downtown may push the city’s vacancy rate higher than New York and Boston after developers added space during the first recession in 17 years.

The proportion of empty space in Toronto’s office market, lower than the 12 largest U.S. business districts last year, will more than triple by 2011 to 13.6 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Brookfield Properties Corp., Cadillac Fairview Corp. and Menkes Developments Ltd. each added a glass skyscraper to the downtown of Canada’s most populous city in the last five months.

“We’re going to have a little bumpy ride for the next couple of years,†said Paul Morse, Cushman & Wakefield’s senior managing director of office leasing in Toronto. “We’re not going to see too many buildings after this because the economics aren’t really there to support it.â€

The three new towers increased the amount of office space in Toronto by about 3.2 million square feet (300,000 square meters). That’s nearly as much as was added during the previous 17 years combined, according to Cushman & Wakefield, and more is coming. Construction is under way on a 26-story complex on York Street that will be used by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP when it opens in 2011.

The skyscrapers that opened this year will enable Royal Bank of Canada, RBC Dexia Investor Services, KPMG LLP and Telus Corp. to move into larger premises with room for expansion. For the owners of the vacated properties, the tenants may be difficult to replace.

Vacancies Rise

“You’re moving from basically eight buildings into these three,†said John O’Bryan, vice chairman of broker CB Richard Ellis Ltd. in Toronto. “The issue is, over the next 12, 24 months, who backfills those buildings?â€

Office vacancies in Toronto’s central area, which includes the financial center, downtown and midtown areas, will rise to 7.8 percent by the end of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s biggest closely held commercial-property broker. Vacancies, which were 4.4 percent at the end of 2008, will jump to 12.1 percent next year and peak in 2011. By contrast, Midtown Manhattan’s rate will rise to 13.4 percent by 2011, from 8.5 percent last year. Boston’s rate will rise to 13.1 percent from 8.3 percent in 2008.

Toronto’s latest office building, the 30-floor Telus center, officially opens tomorrow and is the third tower to be completed since June. The buildings increased the total amount in downtown Toronto by 5 percent.

York Street Building

Telus, a Vancouver-based telecommunications company, is moving 1,800 workers from 15 suburban locations to its C$250 million ($237 million) building on York Street starting this month. More than 80 percent of the 780,000 square-foot building is leased with Telus as the main tenant.

The Toronto-Dominion Centre, the six-tower complex in the heart of the financial district, has lost tenants to the new buildings. Royal Bank and RBC Dexia Investor Services vacated 380,000 square feet in the 40-year-old Royal Trust Tower to relocate to RBC Centre on Wellington Street West, which opened in June. Both complexes are owned by Cadillac Fairview, the real-estate unit of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Cadillac Fairview plans to upgrade TD Centre in a project worth “close to C$100 million,†said John Sullivan, executive vice-president of development. He expects a short-term “blip†in vacancies as the towers open, though not all downtown properties will be equally affected.

Older Properties

“You’re going to see some of the vacancy concentrated in many of the older and less maintained properties,†Sullivan said. “We’re just fortunate that all of our inventory in downtown Toronto is not of that ilk.â€

Toronto’s estimated office vacancies will be less than the 18.8 percent peak in 1993, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Vacancies last exceeded 12 percent from the fourth quarter of 1991 to the first quarter of 1997.

Toronto weathered the recession better than other North American cities due partly to the strength of its main tenants: banks and other financial-services firms. In September, Canadian lenders were ranked the world’s soundest for the second straight year by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

“The good news for the downtown has really been the performance of the financial institutions,†O’Bryan said. “They, by and large, have not shed space and some of them are adding people.â€

Main Tenants

Royal Bank, Canada’s largest lender, and RBC Dexia are the main tenants of the 43-floor RBC Centre. About 5,000 employees are relocating from four buildings to the 1.2-million-square- foot center, which is 75 percent leased. RBC Dexia, a partnership between Royal Bank and Dexia SA, employs about 2,000 of those workers, who’ve already moved in to eight floors.

“There’s a lot of space for growth, so when new business comes on board and we’re expanding, we don’t have to worry about finding space in four buildings,†RBC Dexia Chief Executive Officer Jose Placido said.

KPMG is the main tenant for Bay Adelaide Centre, a 51-floor tower opened in September by Brookfield Properties. The firm is vacating 236,644 square feet at the nearby Commerce Court West tower owned by a unit of Great-West Lifeco Inc. to take more space for 1,200 employees. The building is across the street from Donald Trump’s 60-story hotel and condominium tower on Bay Street, slated for completion in 2011.

Bay Adelaide

The 1.2-million-square-foot Bay Adelaide Centre is 73 percent leased and other firms are negotiating leases for the rest, said Tom Farley, CEO of Brookfield Property’s Canadian commercial operations.

“We’re seeing leasing activity increase in the last couple of months,†Farley said. “There’s a greater level of confidence by businesses and an expectation that we are out of a recession and they can start implementing their business plans.â€

Brookfield, which owns 13 Toronto buildings, is planning a second phase for Bay Adelaide Centre, a 900,000-square-foot tower that Farley says will be done “within a decade.†A proposed third tower may become condominiums instead of offices, depending on demand, Farley said.

Toronto’s soaring vacancies may be a boon for tenants as the economy recovers.

“The next two or three years fothe landlords are going to be a grind downtown,†O’Bryan said. “Tenants will be the winners.â€

To contact the reporter on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net.

 

[Ramako]

^^^
Indeed.

 

[Automation Gallery]

Old news, its just scare tactics..

 

[taal]

Old news, its just scare tactics..

Let's be fair here though - don't forget Boston has not added new inventory in the way of 5% - not sure about New York but I don't think they have either.

 

[Ramako]

Let's be fair here though - don't forget Boston has not added new inventory in the way of 5% - not sure about New York but I don't think they have either.

Also remember that New York lost 800,000 square metres of office space at the start of the decade.

 

[philofra]

Some people love the railway tracks. In Toronto they juxtapose a wonderful contrast to the backdrop of the city and its rising skyscrapers. Just stand at the Bathurst Street Bridge and look at the fantastic play of lines between the tracks and the buildings.

One of the wonderful things about Toronto is leaving it by train and seeing the skyline as the train is pulling out of downtown. If the tracks were buried that wonderful sight would be gone. Train lovers love the sight of the tracks.

One thing I would like to see totally buried is the overhead wires. The sight of those overhead wires is what makes Toronto look provincial and small town.

 

[DSC]

Though the question of the rail tracks and the Gardiner are certainly interesting and worth discussing this thread is entitled 45 Bay St (SITQ, 50s) .

Is there any reason to think it will be anything but a parking lot for years to come?

 

[maestro]

I have faith in SITQ to deliver this project in five years with no signed tenants and 20% overall vacancy in the city.

 

[Automation Gallery]

I have faith in SITQ to deliver this project in five years with no signed tenants and 20% overall vacancy in the city.

Your joking, right... 20%.

 

[grey]

Your joking, right... 20%.

You think all the tenants of Bay Adelaide, RBC Dexia, and Union are brand new staff that came *poof* out of nowhere? A lot of older office space is being vacated to fill these towers, so of COURSE there's going to be huge vacancies. It's not "scare tactics".

At this point, it would probably make a lot more sense for Caisse Depot (or whatever company would occupy the SITQ tower) to buy up vacated floors in the TD Centre, Brookfield Place, etc. Which is entirely possible, by the way. Just because a logo is on the top of a tower, it doesn't mean that entire company is consolidated there. A lot of large companies are spread out all over the city. My company, for instance, occupies several floors in at least 6 towers in the Financial District.

 

[maestro]

Your joking, right... 20%.

It's in reference to Eighth Avenue Place in Calgary so yeah. It's highly probable that SITQ building will be 100% vacant with 20% vacancy in city upon delivery.


I would count on up to 15% over the next few years. Why do you think we're hearing of several large renovation projects? I'm sure news of conversions are just around the corner.

 

[taal]

You think all the tenants of Bay Adelaide, RBC Dexia, and Union are brand new staff that came *poof* out of nowhere? A lot of older office space is being vacated to fill these towers, so of COURSE there's going to be huge vacancies. It's not "scare tactics".

At this point, it would probably make a lot more sense for Caisse Depot (or whatever company would occupy the SITQ tower) to buy up vacated floors in the TD Centre, Brookfield Place, etc. Which is entirely possible, by the way. Just because a logo is on the top of a tower, it doesn't mean that entire company is consolidated there. A lot of large companies are spread out all over the city. My company, for instance, occupies several floors in at least 6 towers in the Financial District.

Grey I'm pretty sure everyone understands this now - there are not many that believe all the tenants in our new office buildings are *new* to the core - although I agree for whatever reason that sentiment existed for a little while.

Anyway, if the vacany rates hit near 12/13% < including sub leases vacancies - that would probably indicate most of the 5% was simply shifting around VS new employment. Although we know a lot of these firms expanded in the new buildings so more likely, it's loss of other jobs as well.