Maple Leaf Gardens Renovation Pics

Renovations on Maple Leaf Gardens steadily continue as construction crews try to meet a projected spring 2011 completion date of the joint Loblaws and Ryerson facility. As part of a deal that provided the project with a sum of $20-million from Canada’s Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, the makeover of the original six arena must be finished by March 31, 2011.

Full Post and more pics here!

579 Richmond Street West – Fantastic Brick and Beam Downtown West Toronto

I’ve had this sublease available for a while. Two meeting rooms, reception, shipping entrance at the back, parking, kitchen and the furniture can be included.

It’s a great deal and a great space. Do you know anyone looking for this type of product?

St Lawrence Market – Toronto Renovations

The winner of the St. Lawrence Market North Building architectural competition is Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, also known as the “red team.”

BlogTO article

Featured Property – 2 Carlton Street

For floor plans check out the website at http://www.2carlton.com

Floor Name	Suite #	Rentable Area	Rental Rate	Availability	Comments
MEZZANINE	M1	8,454	$14.00	November 1, 2010	Two Suites available: east mezz– in base building condition, and west mezz– built out, mostly open concept, hardwood floors
06	619	1,056	$14.00	Immediate	built out offices, open area and kitchenette
10	1000	1,097	$14.00	August 1, 2010	Built out space with 1 office and servery
13	1307	984	$14.00	Immediate	2 offices, open area, hardwood floors
13	1317	3,795	$14.00	November 1, 2010	built out with offices, meeting room, kitchenette and open area.
14	1406-07-11	9,826	14.00	November 1, 2010	Base building condition
15	1503	1,926	$14.00	Immediate	built out with 3 offices, boardroom, kitchen and open area.
15	1508	990	$14.00	November 1, 2010	built out with 1 large office, 2 storage areas and open area. Contiguous with Suite 1503.
16	1600	14,400	14.00	November 1, 2010	Full floor base building condition.
17	1711	2,287	$14.00	November 1, 2010	built out with private offices, boardrooms and kitchenette. Contiguous with Suite 1717.
17	1717	1,430	$14.00	November 1, 2010	built out with 3 private offices and boardroom. Contiguous with Suite 1711.
18	1820	1,714	$14.00	June 1, 2010	4 offices, meeting room, office/storage room & reception

Virtual Tour – 5000 Yonge Street

http://homesite.obeo.com/Viewer/Unbranded.aspx?tourid=542610

The Strata: World’s First Skyscraper With Built-In Wind Turbines

Prepare to be blown away: the latest addition to London’s skyline is a striking modern skyscraper that is heralded as the world’s first building with wind turbines built in! Nicknamed “The Razor”, the 148 meter-tall Strata tower is topped with a trio of turbines that will produce enough power to meet 8% of its energy needs.

Photo by Linda Nylind

We’ve seen skyscrapers studded with wind turbines before, but the Strata is the first building to integrate turbines directly into its facade. Developed and contracted by Brookfield Europe, the tower is a tricky engineering feat indeed, especially granted the gusty blasts of wind that construction crews had to deal with while raising it.

Measuring in at 42 stories tall, the Strata tower has enough height to eclipse the buildings surrounding it, allowing it to take full advantage of the area’s 35mph wind speeds. The tower is also designed to utilize the Venturi effect created by nearby structures to force wind through the turbines at accelerated rates, generating an expected 50MWh of electricity annually.

Full Post

Yahoo! Canada – Toronto Office

I had the pleasure of meeting Joanne Acri (@joanneacri) and Sarah Bradley (@sbradley) last week to tour the Yahoo! Canada Toronto office at 207 Queens Quay.  We sat down to discuss the building, the landlord and why Yahoo! decided to move their offices from Front Street down to the lake front.

It doesn’t take much to make a good impression with me when I meet clients for a first time so when I walked into reception and was offered candy and coffee it was off to a great start.  Joanne and Sarah lead me into the lunchroom where we chatted about the corporate culture at Yahoo! (conclusion awesome!).  The lounge / lunchroom we were in was outfitted with a Foosball table and arcade game and was surrounded by flat screens tuned in to the latest news from CP24.  If you are interested in hearing more about the corporate culture or Yahoo’s space you can reach out to Joanne or Sarah directly via Twitter, I’m sure they’d be happy to help you out!

From a commercial real estate / building perspective, here are some of the things you should think about before you consider 207 Queens Quay as a tenant.

The Good
The lobby show’s very well, as do the common areas.  The building is occupied by tenant’s like Bell Canada and Wind Mobile, so you’re in great company.  The building is run by Brookfield, one of the top property managers in Canada (if not the world).  What really blew me away was the views over the lake and the incredible natural light.  This was the feature that Joanne and Sarah suggested was was their favorite too.

The Tough
The most problematic thing with 207 Queens Quay was getting there.  A quick 10 minute walk from the Financial Core can feel a lot longer in winter.  On the flip side, in the summer, the area can become inundated with tourists which can drive up prices at local restaurants.  The volume of people and traffic can be hectic and get frustrating if you need to leave the office quickly to get to a meeting.  That being said, it’s located right smack in the middle of Toronto’s waterfront and the boardwalk offers incredible outdoor opportunities, particularly in the warmer months.

Overall, I was encouraged with the building and can see tenants overcoming the difficulties of the location to get an A+ landlord and into a great building with some of the coolest tenants and views a building can offer.

Thanks for the tour guys!

PS. Does your company have cool office space you would like to show off or do you have complaints / complements about your building you are in, please let me know.  Nothing like bad or good press to get a Landlord to smarten up and take notice!  Here is a quick survey to help you structure your input – Building Questionnaire

Click on the image below for a larger version of the picture.

Featured Client – Chick Advisor – 96 Spadina Avenue

I had the pleasure of meeting Alex and Ali de Bold at a number of tech related networking events.  As an up and coming start-up with lots of influence in the industry I was eager to help them out.  It took some patience to find the right premises as there were not a lot of vacancies at the time and both Ali and Alex had a solid vision on the type of space that would suit the company.  Further, it wasn’t the smoothest transaction trying to deal with Allied Properties and getting all of the construction covered and amortized into the rental rate.  However, at the end of the day we secured a lease, had the space built out to their specs and moved in on schedule.  If you would like to know more about ChickAdvisor.com you can check them out here!

If you want guidance on how to find your new office space contact me!

About ChickAdvisor

Nothing beats a good recommendation and that’s what ChickAdvisor is all about! We are a social media platform for women with user-generated reviews on the best products and local services in North America. In addition to our online presence, we host local events a Product Review Club and videos!

Our goal is to help women make better purchasing decisions by getting advice first on a wide range of topics from electronics to electrolysis. Our members determine the hottest trends, the best local services, and the coolest products, and we deliver the location and purchase information to make getting what you want faster and more affordable.

ChickAdvisor launched in September 2006 by husband and wife duo Ali and Alex de Bold as a solution for Ali’s constant search for the perfect hair salon. The company has been profiled in many major on and offline publications including CBC Newsworld, GlobalTV, The Toronto Star, CBC Radio, Canadian Business, Media in Canada, Slice.ca and Rogers Media.

Green Roofed London Hotel is Buried Underground

by Evelyn Lee, 12/23/09

This five star hotel is going under – underground that is! Designed by ReardonSmith Architects for a proposed development at Hersham Golf Club in Surrey, London, this new subterranean hotel will pay its ultimate respects to London’s Green Belt by placing all 200+ guest rooms underneath it! The entire scheme is covered with a plush green roof that takes its cue from the surrounding countryside.

In addition to the green integrated into the building, the proposal includes the addition of extensive on-site re-vegetation and re-organization of existing spaces (such as parking) that will actually leave the site even more eco-friendly than it is now.

Matthew Guy, ReardonSmith’s project designer, states “Our concept integrates hotel, spa, and golf facilities into a single architecturally exciting and organic composition below and above ground. The design fulfills the requirements of the brief for a bespoke five star hotel while returning hard standing to the Green Belt and improving the physical layout and visual attraction of the entire site. It represents a commercially viable solution to developing in the Green Belt and is, we believe, a world-first.”

http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/12/23/5-star-underground-hotel-in-london

2 Carlton St

WEBSITE – http://www.2carlton.com

Located in Downtown Toronto on the North East corner of Yonge and College Streets, close to the former Maple Leaf Gardens, 2 Carlton Street offers great office space for small or large tenants alike. With amenities that include on-site public and private parking, after hours security and a location adjacent to the College Subway station office space rarely stays vacant for long.

Available space:

Suite 602	614 sf	$1,640	2 offices and open area.
Suite 801	2,004 sf	$5,350	2 offices, reception, kitchen, storage room and large open area.
Suite 1307	984 sf	$2,625	Built out.
Suite 1503	1,926 sf	$5,140	Built out with 3 offices, boardroom, kitchen and open area.
Suite 1508	990 sf	$2,640	Built out with 1 large office, 2 storage areas and open area.
Suite 1820	1,714 sf	$4,570	4 offices, meeting room, office/storage room & reception.

Design your own floor plan here!

Regular floor plans click here.

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