Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
Peeve Patrol
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
Of late, downtown Toronto has felt a lot like New York City. In addition to the influx of celebrities for TIFF and Toronto’s growing reputation as a hub of pop culture, the amount of new tower construction near Union Station is reminiscent of the development boom in the Big Apple.
Being like New York is rarely a bad thing, but there are occurrences that make you hope Toronto has some distinct qualities. The recent financial meltdown is one of these instances; amidst the collapse of prominent financial institutions, the ailing U.S. financial sector may have rough ramifications for NYC's commercial and residential real estate market. Not only will the recent mergers and buyouts ignite a consolidation of office space, but these events have also made it difficult for building owners to maintain their skyrocketing rents because of rising unemployment. While it’s unlikely that the Canadian banks will experience a similar fallout, that doesn't mean Torontonians should feel immune: an American-led recession could have drastic implications on the Canadian economy and Toronto’s urban development.
To put this in perspective, downtown Toronto currently houses 60 million square feet of office space. While this number has remained relatively stable for quite some time, 3.8 million more square feet is under construction in the form of three new skyscrapers. The first of these is RBC Centre, situated at Wellington and Simcoe. Standing 43 floors high, the tower will be Royal Bank’s secondary home. Next, the new Telus Tower, on the corner of Bremner and York between the Rogers Centre and the ACC, is also in development. Finally, Bay Adelaide Centre, across from Scotia Plaza on the corner of Bay and Adelaide, will be the home of big name firms like KPMG, Faskens, and Goodmans.
Bay Adelaide Centre is a prime example of what a weakening economy can do to Toronto’s real estate market. Originally intended to rise during downtown's building boom in the 1980s, construction on the tower commenced in 1990 but was soon halted because Ontario entered a deep recession. During this slowdown, office tower vacancy rates downtown soared to 20% (current rates sit around 4%, according to CB Richard Ellis' second quarter report). After a few years passed, development plans eventually re-emerged but these too were kicked to the curb after the tech bubble popped. Finally, almost 15 years later, the Canadian economy picked up enough speed to support plans to construct the tower as it stands today.
Being optimistic, these problems may not re-emerge if Toronto is hit by a recession, and the looming downturn may never even come. In the event that it doesn’t, Toronto has much to be happy about: the new towers will generate a greater supply of office space and will also add new shimmering glass to the downtown skyline. More importantly, however, some of the construction might help to spur new downtown communities. Standing tall on the large area of land between Toronto's two biggest entertainment venues, Telus Tower and its surrounding condo development has filled the vapid space that once detracted from downtown's buzzing atmosphere. With some luck, these buildings will lay the groundwork for a burgeoning community with its own unique characteristics.
Still, the potential for a recession cannot be ignored. The current construction boom depends on expanding businesses to fill the new office spaces and to occupy the vacant areas left behind by firms moving from older buildings to the new skyscrapers. As it stands, the prospects for this boom aren’t promising—most companies are facing stagnant growth or are shrinking. Given this lackluster performance, let’s hope the cracks from New York’s potential real estate fallout don't create fault lines that spread to Toronto. On top of the Canadian businesses that might downsize or close shop because of the tough economic environment, many New York-based firms have offices here that could be shut down. While 20% vacancy rates may not be reached this time around, either of these scenarios could result in a subdued downtown atmosphere and a large number of empty offices. For the developers' sakes, let's hope they factored an economic downturn into their break-even analyses. Downtown Toronto just might become home to a whole lot of barren concrete and glass.
Top photo by funinthegym from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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Toronto is nothing like NYC. Like, not even close.
Maybe more like Chicago? Great view of the skyscraper tho!
I think he mentioned the construction boom in NYC as part of the introduction to the larger cautionary tale about the impact of the trouble on wall street on those buildings.
Wall Street:NYC
Bay Street:Toronto
see?
5:1
10:2
20:4
see? they're nothing alike, but they are, like, alike.
Next they need to switch all the streets to one way streets and number them. It would make getting around a lot easier. And it would make locating things clearer.
But they'll never do that. Because that would require some kind of vision. And there is none here.
Hey Tim,
you seem pretty informed about the Toronto real estate market. I'm looking to contribute more on sites like this as I'm a commercial real estate agent myself. Great article... and I think there are similarities between NY and Toronto... but simple small scale similarities is where it ends... and we Torontoist say thank you... unless you're on the TTC.
Why the hell would we want numbered streets and one-ways everywhere? You really have a hard time finding stuff in Toronto based on the address?
Yeah, seconded, who needs numbered streets to find things. I like having names on our streets. They have meaning, more than a number. It's not really that hard to find things. Numbering a grid isn't vision, it unnecessary.
If Toronto and New York are similar, then Stevie Wonder and Hank Williams are twins separated at birth.
In the United States alone, there are about 20,000 "incorporated places," or urban areas that could be classified as cities.
That's roughly 19,999 civic councils lacking the "vision" to name their streets after the letters of the alphabet as opposed to, say, things, places and people that are historically, culturally and geographically meaningful.
For real, though, it'd be incredibly difficult and expensive to rename all of Toronto's streets according to a grid system. You can do that with new planned communities, but asking millions of people to suddenly change their address would be complete chaos.
Maybe more like Chicago? Great view of the skyscraper tho!
Somewhere in the middle...NYC, Chicago. though I feel a bit provincial using US. cities as the standard of measure. Suffice to say that on my three or four times there in the past year, Toronto is just like itself. which is good.
See you in mid-October!...What's the weather like?
Toronto is a world city comparable to London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo
Well at least according to ex Mayor Mel
I for one am glad to see the Bay-Adelaide Centre and the RBC Centre going up. If more space becomes available in older buildings it allows some smaller companies to have offices downtown in decent buildings, which is good for the downtown. I started working downtown during the 1990s recession, and it was pretty grim, it was like the smell of layoffs was hanging in the air and everybody was worried that they could be next.
There's already a bunch of numbered streets in Etobicoke south of Lake Shore. They go from 1 up to the 40s, I believe. Those people might be especially pissed about such a change, seeing their street name not just erased, but moved downtown.
With some 7000 streets, it's increasingly difficult to find anything without losing your cool.
Especially when you encounter the D Streets. Davenport. Dupont. Dovercourt. Dufferin. All of which converge on each other at varying points.
As much as people harbor sentiment for old street names, it's about time we simplified the issue. And sooner someone at City Hall has the courage to change that and make all the streets one way, the better.
It's a breeze finding places in NYC. Here, the experience is maddening.
As for one way streets. Ask any urban planner worth his or her degree. Everything flows better with one way streets. Cars have 50% less opportunities to turn and cycling on one way streets is way better.
According to my insiders at City Hall, the issue of making all the streets in core one way -- or most of them -- is going to resurface this fall, because the congestion is getting worse at speed no one anticipated 5 years ago.
Hopefully, wiping street names is next.
It's faster and more pleasant to look for 54th and 3rd than Bellvue and College. It's clearer.
As for Etobicoke, they can keep their numbered system. The " Coke " is not part of the core.
If only every building was at an intersection! But they aren't, that's why they have numbers at the door.
I suppose a numbered system would be easier if you got lost; you'd just count streets.
Then again, you could just stop someone or pop into a local business, and ask for directions. Is that harder than renaming an entire city of streets?
If we had to name all these newly one-way streets, I think we could do better than just "A," "B," "C," etc. We could at least give them names that correspond with the letters of the alphabet and order them accordingly.
"Acid Street," "Barbiturate Street," "Crack Street," etc. They don't have to be named after drugs, that's just an example.
First of all, I am also against renaming streets in Toronto: it's not that tough to get around. "Some" use of more one-way streets is worth looking into, though.
Second, Toronto is indeed an important world city, referred to in this listing as an "incipient global city" like Boston, Amsterdam, or Madrid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city