Union Station makeover finally a GO

Paul Moloney
CITY HALL BUREAU

The announcement that the provincial and federal governments will kick in $305 million of the $640 million price tag ends Toronto’s search for funds to renovate Union Station.

Almost nine years after the City of Toronto took over Union Station, the money has finally been found to carry out a $640 million revamp of the landmark transportation hub.

By early next year, major work will be underway to transform the building into a more commuter-friendly place with larger concourses, a major underground retail mall and new head office for GO Transit in the west wing.

The project is to be completed by 2015.

One of the first jobs is to build a new PATH tunnel under York St. north to Wellington St., which commuters will use while work goes on to refurbish the GO concourse and triple the space to 122,000 square feet, vastly improving pedestrian flow.

Yesterday, the federal government announced it would chip in $133 million, on top of $172 million from the province, for a total of $305 million from the two governments.

“All of us who use the GO train and who use VIA Rail know how important Union Station is and know how much it is in need of revitalization and renovation, and the ability to handle more people,” said federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

The city has lined up about $300 million – $148 million of its own money and the rest expected to come from a private-sector partner to be approved by city council at its special meeting Aug. 5 and 6.

There’s also $25 million expected from VIA Rail and $6 million in previously approved funding for security upgrades.

The announcement was made on the north side of Front St. with the station forming an impressive backdrop – but one that also showed signs of the building’s neglect, with water-stained and mossy masonry clearly visible.

The renovation plans have the potential to turn the building into a transportation showpiece, with improvements to the subway, GO and VIA train as well as bus travel and a possible future rail link to Pearson International Airport.

“When you look across the country, this is the single most significant opportunity for creating a true multi-modal transportation hub that brings everything together in one place,” said Michael Roschlau, president of the Canadian Urban Transit Association.

http://www.thestar.com

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Tornado tower

A young Sweden based architecture firm Visiondivision believes in strong concepts and constantly re-investigating their role as architects by always pushing the limits of their field of work and the strategies of their design. Tornado, is an entry for an opera competition in Taiwan which was a collaboration with Markus Wagner, a member of Svensk Standard. This project recalls me the Dubai Dynamic tower by David Fisher in our previous post – the building in motion, both projects are really impressive!

This is a powerful energy generating machine on the outside with a sensual, organic inside that transcends the visitors from the bustling city to a serene world of the performing arts.

One of the positive aspects of raising the building is that it creates a generous public space around it. The square slopes gently towards the entrance, surrounded by pearls, the visitors descends fadingly into the building like entering an ocean.

A great spiral of pearls is the main focal point of the entrance hall, you can either take the elevator through it or the ramp around it, by foot or with the VIP Train of pearls, taking you all the way into the Grand Theater.

The Grand theater is embedded in pearls, creating a elegant and modern experience for the audience. The semi-transparent pearls are lit from behind and dim the light, creating a glowing sensation. Depending on the performance, the ambience can be set into different modes.

A chandelier of pearls in the middle of the theater drops seamlessly from the roof like a jewel, radiating an ambient light. The VIP Train is now converted into comfortable seats. Reaching the roof terrace, the pearls subsides into clouds. Walking around among the clouds one can experience panorama views of Taipei. The building performs on its own for the city, generating culture, urban life and pure sustainable energy for its vicinity.

This is all strongly manifested from the visual effect of its rotating façade. The façade is covered with curved blades are attached on segments that rotate with the wind, generating energy to the building and to the city.

The pearls are non-toxic and non-flamable acrylic balls with a tint of reflection. Pearls in different sizes is combined into various landscapes inside the building to enhance the theater experience.

http://plusmood.com

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UC-Light project puts LEDs to work in communication networks

by Darren Murph

Yeah, mad scientists have been trying to get the public at large to pay attention to visible light communications for years now, but the gurus over at the University of California, Riverside think that the project they’re involved in holds a special kind of promise. The Center for Ubiquitous Communication by Light (UC-Light) will be funded with $3.5 million from the Multicampus Research Program and Initiatives (MRPI) competition within the University of California system, and at its core, it’s hoping to unearth a magical method for linking up all sorts of electronics (HDTVs, PDAs, information kiosks, PCs, etc.) via light. You know, so your refrigerator can tell your smartphone what groceries are needed during the next supermarket stop, and that massive billboard on I-95 can beam more information that you don’t want right onto your handset. If all goes to plan (and California’s budget problem solves itself), the work will begin in early 2010 and last five years, after which we fully anticipate “very low-cost communication and navigation systems [to be built] on existing lighting infrastructure.” And fowl in every pot. And unicorns in every garage.

http://www.engadget.com

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Yonge and Sheppard Office Space – Toronto July 2009

For additional pictures and information on the property listed below click here!

OfficeSearchToronto.com tracks available office space across the GTA. Want a survey or availability report somewhere else in Toronto? Are these space too big? Call us at 416-992-9869.

1000 sf at Yonge and Sheppard

Click on chart for higher quality version.

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Dual Agency

Great article on Dual Agency.  Here’s the start:

Dual agency, the practice of the same agent / brokerage representing both the buyer and seller in the same real estate transaction, has long been the subject of debate.

Every few months, some real estate agent will get all spooled up about dual agency.

Now it’s my turn.

http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com

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Toronto’s TD Centre Are Among Downtown Properties Undergoing Refits

BY ANGELA KRYHUL
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

The Toronto-Dominion Centre is undergoing a makeover, but there’s more to it than renovated foyers and a spruced-up outdoor courtyard.

The real story is behind the walls of the iconic black towers, where owner Cadillac Fairview Corp. is investing in systems that will help to reduce energy consumption and operating costs – and make the six-building office complex in downtown Toronto more attractive to tenants.

Cadillac Fairview is typical of Toronto landlords who are investing in green retrofits, hoping that upgrades to older buildings will make them more competitive in a market where the office vacancy rate is rising and millions of square feet of newly constructed, LEED-certified space will be delivered over the next several months.

There is more retrofitting going on in Toronto than in other parts of Canada because of the huge amount of older office space that will open up as tenants jump from these buildings into five new towers going up in the downtown core, says Robert Armstrong, managing director of leasing services for commercial property broker Avison Young in Toronto.

Tenants are working with tight budgets and they’re looking everywhere for savings. “What they’re asking for right now is how to reduce costs, whether it’s getting into a building that is more efficient than the one they’re in, or how to make the space they’re occupying more efficient,” Mr. Armstrong says.

While the economy has put the kibosh on new commercial construction, the retrofitting trend is taking hold.

A report by Pike Research, a market research firm based in Colorado, predicts the retrofit market will experience strong growth through 2013 and beyond.

“Compared to conventional space, high-performance green building space is vacant less often,” notes the report, called Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Commercial and Public Buildings. “Owners of empty commercial buildings are adopting green retrofits as a market differentiator.”

Tenants are starting to pay more attention to such things as energy efficiency and certification in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building rating system when scouting for new premises, says Dermot Sweeny, principal of Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. Architects in Toronto.

“I think we’re seeing a tremendous change in how tenants are going to the market,” Mr. Sweeny says. “As tenants become more sophisticated, the smart landlords out there are saying, ‘We’ve got to be ahead of this curve.’ When tenants walk in and say, ‘What are you doing for the environment’ or ‘What are you doing to save me money, Mr. Landlord,’ they can answer with seven or eight specific, highly desirable changes and retrofits they are doing to the building.”

Steven Sorensen, vice-president and divisional manager for Cadillac Fairview’s Toronto office portfolio, says the upgrades at the TD Centre – the buildings range in age from 18 to 42 years and provide office and retail space for 21,000 people – benefit the environment and will make the space more competitive.

“Most environmental initiatives are based on reducing utility consumption. It’s to the mutual advantage of the tenant and the landlord because, if we can reduce our operating costs, we become more competitive and, hence, can attract more tenancy,” Mr. Sorensen says.

Cadillac Fairview is spending more than $15-million on energy-efficiency initiatives such as re-commissioning all of the mechanical systems, Mr. Sorensen says.

Millions more are being spent on a new fibre-optic building automation control system that will improve the management of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, he says.

This includes installing meters for each tenant so that they can monitor their own energy use. “We felt the most effective way to get [tenants] engaged is to give them the information to help them understand their consumption and usage patterns,” Mr. Sorensen says.

Other improvements include outfitting washrooms with low-flush toilets and automated taps, and sourcing recycled paper products. Lighting will be put on auto sensors.

The TD Centre will eventually apply for a new LEED certification meant specifically for retrofits, Mr. Sorenson says. It’s called the LEED Canada for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM), and will be introduced this summer by the Vancouver-based Canada Green Building Council, which oversees the LEED program.

The new certification, already available in the United States, will give older, upgraded buildings the chance to tout LEED certification, a status until now largely awarded to new, energy-efficient buildings.

The TD Centre isn’t the only downtown property that is now renovating, Mr. Armstrong says. Most of the major landlords are improving their properties as the market becomes more competitive.

Toronto’s overall vacancy rate rose to 8.4 per cent during the second quarter of 2009, from 6.7 per cent for the same period last year, according to CB Richard Ellis. And the city will see about 3.9 million square feet of new office space hit the market as five office towers are completed over the next few months – the RBC Centre, the Telus Tower, the Bay-Adelaide Centre and Maple Leaf Square – as well as 18 York St., to be completed by 2012.

As they move into the new towers, tenants will leave behind about three million square feet of older space, Mr. Armstrong says.

Mr. Sweeny’s firm worked on the RBC Centre, which will apply for LEED gold certification when it is completed this summer. He describes the project as an “epiphany” for the Toronto market because it’s an example of how a powerful tenant went to the developer community with a very specific set of requirements for an energy-efficient building. It’s a fairly rare example, he says, where “a tenant absolutely drives the result.”

Mr. Armstrong says that, in the past six months, landlords have made more of an effort to help tenants find ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies.

This atmosphere of co-operation is quite refreshing, Mr. Armstrong says.

“Sure, there are negotiations, and you’re always pushing and pulling to get the best deal, but landlords are definitely coming to the table to try and meet the needs of the tenants out there. It’s actually a very good environment to work in right now.”

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UDC shows ceiling OLED lamp prototype

White, environmentally sound and cool to the touch OLED lights could very well be the future of mundane office environment lighting, but for now they’re just meant to be man handled by four geeks at a table.

Still, Office Space comparisons aside, for me the simple dimming of the four-square OLED, and the fact that these lights won’t rape and pillage the environment like those nasty mercury-containing fluorescents we see everywhere today, were cool enough to warrant the wait.

Unfortunately, just like OLED HDTV screens, these lights are starting small and expensive (the prototype shown here is just 24-inches). Hopefully the $2 million Department of Energy grant awarded to manufacturer UDC in July 2008 (it’s their prototype) will hasten the process, if only slightly.
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What was the last thing your commercial real estate agent did for you?

My social media and marketing efforts have encouraged thinking outside the box. The last deal I did at Yonge and Eglinton I referred the client a designer, contractor, phone and IT, mover and insurance agent. Only thing she didn’t need was a commercial real estate lawyer. I have become the one stop shop agent. 

What was the last thing your commercial real estate agent did for you? If you’re not happy with their service and response times it’s up to you to make the change.

OfficeSearchToronto.com tracks available office space across the GTA. Want a survey or availability report somewhere else in Toronto? Are these space too big? Call us at 416-992-9869 or E-mail Me!.

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