Tag Archives: commercial real estate
Echo Boomers in their 20s and 30s are reshaping downtown
Gayle MacDonald – The Globe and Mail
In the last five years, the population of Toronto’s downtown core has more than tripled, fuelled by demand from the so-called Echo Boomers who want to live and play close to their workplaces, says a new report from TD Bank.
The explosion in density in the heart of Toronto is also in sharp reversal of a three-decade-long trend by Echo Boomers’ parents, who fled the downtown in the early 70s eager to buy larger, more affordable homes in the suburbs.
“There’s been a surge in construction of mixed-use communities in Toronto, which is attracting a more youthful, urban crowd who don’t want a long commute,” says the report’s author, Francis Fong. “They want to be close to their jobs, surrounded by great restaurants and night life. They want the whole nine yards.”
Echo Boomers – individuals born between 1972 and 1992 – are now the largest age group in Canada, adds Mr. Fong, who began researching the demographic shift in Toronto’s downtown at the end of last year.
The TD report says this work force is highly skilled and highly educated. Those skill sets are also attracting businesses, which for years had tended to locate in the suburbs to avoid high commercial real estate costs. Offices are returning to the urban mecca, says Mr. Fong, so they can tap into this growing labour pool.
Since 2009, 4.7 million square feet of office space has been built in the city of Toronto, compared with 3.9 million in the surrounding areas of Halton, York, Peel, and Durham. “I would expect that trend to continue, but what happens when the Echo Boomers start having children? Will they want to raise families in condos, or will they follow their parents to the outskirts? It’s a question mark, but if they move out of the core, their parents – who want to downsize – may move back in. It’s going to be fascinating to watch what takes place,” says Mr. Fong.
The Echo Boom generation currently makes up close to half of the downtown core’s population, but only represents one-quarter of the entire province’s population. The median age in the downtown core is mid-30s, while in the rest of Ontario it’s above 40.
Mr. Fong says the gentrification of once-tired neighbourhoods in the core has also sparked a massive increase in condo construction. According to a recent city of Toronto report, 40,000 condos have been built in the core south of Bloor Street since 2000. As of the end of 2011, more than 90,000 additional condo units have been built or approved within the city, most in the core.
Naturally, the influx of people to Toronto’s downtown will put greater pressure on public transit, roads and infrastructure that is already overburdened. The city, says Mr. Fong, is going to have to act – and act quickly – to keep up with demand. But he adds “growing pains are an inevitable part” of Toronto evolving into a world-class city.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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Why corporations are flocking back to downtown Toronto
Tara Perkins – The Globe and Mail
Jason Johnstone feels like a new man since he switched workplaces this spring.
It wasn’t the job that was killing him so much as the lifestyle.
Until May, he’d been living downtown and commuting to work in Mississauga. It used to be commonplace for businesses to take advantage of low rents in the suburbs; employees would pay the price in long travel times. But when SNC Lavalin offered Mr. Johnstone a new job, he was pleasantly surprised to find his new workplace would be located downtown.
SNC Lavalin is not alone. Companies are increasingly sucking up higher rents for more central locations, where they can draw from the pool of young, highly educated workers moving into newly built condos that are sprouting up in the city centre.
The demographic is expected to grow as Toronto’s downtown intensifies and planners concentrate on creating “live, play, work” communities. As Mr. Johnstone, 30, makes clear, the offer of a centralized life is a huge draw for some employees. “It’s turned my commute from about an hour’s drive to a 30-minute walk,” Mr. Johnstone says. “I sold my car after I got this job. I decided to walk, I lost weight, I felt like my lifestyle got better. I’m saving money, and can spend my disposable income in other areas.”
The benefit to the company, meanwhile, apparently offsets the higher cost of rent.
Availability rates for downtown office space now sit at 4.3%, down from 5% a year ago. In contrast, more office space sits empty in suburban areas than a year ago, with availability rates rising from 8.2% to 8.9%, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial-real-estate firm.
The condo boom that has characterized the city for the last decade, and has really been going full-throttle for about six years, slightly preceded the movement of offices to the core that has been occurring in the last few years. Companies that have been taking up more office space downtown of late range from Coca-Cola to Google to Deloitte.
Mr. Johnstone’s employer, SNC Lavalin, had an office in Etobicoke but needed space to house employees who were working on projects for the mining industry. It surveyed its employees and found that 73% lived either in the downtown core or within five kilometres of a GO train station. SNC Lavalin transferred 280 employees downtown in late 2011, and has hired 120, including Mr. Johnstone, since then.
“The reason you see corporations going downtown is because they need the talent, and they want the best talent,” says Joe Brancato, a regional managing principal with Gensler, a global architectural and planning firm, who is based in New York.
Companies must pay up for the opportunity to be downtown. Gross occupancy costs for space in the financial core are roughly $65 per square foot per year. In the new buildings south of Front Street they would be about $55, and in northwest Mississauga they would be about $33, according to Michael Caplice, senior managing director of office leasing at Cushman & Wakefield.
“These young well-educated professionals, that talent is a dangling carrot for employers,” he said. “Every major user we talk to raises it. It’s part of the war for talent. The work force that these employers want lives down here and isn’t interested in the commute.”
Eric Ginsburg, who helps oversee the Toronto office of Gensler, used to live car-less in New York and now sees the trend rising in Toronto. “As a New Yorker I experienced that lifestyle and coming here a lot of people I talk to have gotten rid of their car within the past five years.”
He adds that the trend has picked up as commute times have worsened. “The big thing we hear with the traffic is the unpredictability of it,” he says. “If you’re in New York you can somewhat predict, coming into the city, the times that you should avoid. But here it’s unexplained, you can have traffic jams at 2 p.m.”
Deloitte will be moving up to 1,000 of its employees from the suburbs to new office premises it will be taking up at the Bay Adelaide Centre East, which is under construction in the financial district. Being close to clients is a key benefit to the location, as are the nearby amenities such as restaurants and stores, says Sheila Botting, national leader at Deloitte Real Estate.
Industry experts say that the company that kicked off the trend was Telus, which moved into the new tower at 25 York St. that was completed in 2009. Peter Menkes, president of the industrial and commercial division at Menkes Developments, which developed that building, says part of what’s at play is the province’s bid to curb urban sprawl.
In the 1980s a migration was occurring to the suburbs, with many companies leaving downtown. “That was all part of urban sprawl, as people were moving to the suburbs and wanted to be closer to where they worked,” Mr. Menkes says. “Downtown Toronto really hadn’t seen much new office development from the early 1990s right through until 2009. There was about an 18-year period where there weren’t any new office buildings completed.”
But the province’s decision to create a buffer zone around urban sprawl caused planners and developers to turn their sights back towards downtown intensification. That strategy is now really taking off with the growth of mixed-use projects that combine some elements of retail, office and residential space, as well as the new projects that are pushing into areas such as the southern pocket of the core.
“The city’s now becoming a real live-work-play paradigm,” says Mr. Menkes.
Google will be officially unveiling its new office at Richmond and York next week, and employees have been working there for the past couple of weeks. The company already had a downtown location, but decided to move its roughly 150 employees to the new larger premises so that it can do more hiring.
Dave Brown, who works in the TV and film content space at Google, has been relishing the downtown lifestyle that he’s had since taking the role in March. Previous jobs and homes had him commuting from Mississauga to Scarborough, and from Toronto to Waterloo.
“Now, whether I’m on my bike or on the streetcar, I’m able to see people on the way home and stop in and run errands on my way home,” he says. “You’re getting things done on your way home as opposed to having an hour and a half of captivity before you can actually start your life again.”
He says that companies like Bixi, which offers bicycle sharing, and AutoShare, which offers cars for short-term use, are making it easier to adopt the urban lifestyle.
But for now, he still owns a car, although he only uses it about once a month.
“I think I’ll get rid of it in the very near future,” he says.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416-388-1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
—————————————————————————————————–
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Liberty Village
With plenty of room for growth, Liberty Village has become one of Toronto’s most desirable condominium communities for young professionals looking for cutting edge architecture and affordable pricing close to the central core. Bounded at the north by King Street West, the west by Dufferin Street, the south by the Gardiner Expressway the east by Strachan Avenue and the northeast by the CP railway tracks, Liberty Village real estate has certainly seen rapid appreciation for condominium end-users and investors.
Where there were once huge industrial operations, now sit modern Victorian-style townhomes. Where streets named Massey and Battery Road evoke the manufacturing plants that built the city, now rise spectacular lofts and condominiums.
Once mainly vacant land and mixed-use industrial commercial real estate, the neighborhood has seen massive gentrification and condo, loft and townhome development. The Liberty Village name was recently introduced as a positive ‘brand’ by Liberty Village condo owners and developers in the area as it underwent significant growth in 2005 and 2006, both in terms of new condos, lofts and office space.
Liberty Village Real Estate Map
Liberty Village condos initially were the best option for most first time buyers and young professionals downtown; however, Liberty Village has now solidified itself as one of the most desirable condo markets downtown. The area boasts some of the city’s best loft conversions, townhomes and condos as well as many great shops, art galleries, cafés and restaurants.
You now have acres of urban townhomes, condos and lofts to choose from – and exciting retail with Dominion, cafe’s, art galleries, restaurants, furniture boutiques and lounges all enclosed in a unique urban setting. Once an industrial wasteland, Liberty Village is now one of the most sought-after places to live in Toronto. There’s truly something for everyone in Liberty Village. Just minutes from the Financial District and entertainment core by streetcar.
Many of the turn of the century warehouses and factories have been converted into some stunning lofts – with more turned into cafe’s, restaurants, fitness studios and boutiques. This is definitely a one of a kind community that appeals to young couples and the single professional.
There are hundreds of Liberty Village townhomes in total ranging from bachelors to 3 bedrooms with huge rooftop terraces. Never mind all of the conds and new lofts (and the one loft conversion, the Toy Factory Lofts). This is a 10-year master-planned community, with the final buildings finishing soon.
Liberty Village
Though its combination of retail shops, office spaces, restaurants and residences have made Liberty Village a thriving neighbourhood, some fear that young families are fleeing the area due to rising rents, tiny condo units and businesses catering primarily to transient twenty-somethings.
Residential developments in Liberty Village – a good three-quarters of which were built after 1986 – primarily accommodate young professionals without children. The resulting neighbourhood population is primarily between 25 and 44 (57%) and single (54%). The one characteristic that these groups share is the ability to live in smaller spaces, such as the one-to-two-bedroom apartments, condos and lofts that make up more than 80% of Liberty Village – a neighbourhood with no detached homes.
In addition, local businesses have followed the developers’ example, gearing products and services toward the condo demographic. Residents have ready access to beer boutiques, fine cheese stores and fancy coffee shops. But as soon as they have a baby, they move out to a neighbourhood with a school and a community centre and a library – none of which are currently available in Liberty Village.
In order to build a more stable residential community, developers will have to decide whether they are going to support potential future markets of emerging families or whether they are going to continue meeting the current demand from young urbanites.
—————————————————————————————————–
Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information – 416−388−1960
Laurin & Natalie Jeffrey are Toronto Realtors with Century 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these articles, they just reproduce them here for people
who are interested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
—————————————————————————————————–
Incoming search terms
