Siamun executive desk blends tech with beauty

Unlike the hip and cool Mac workstations, this exquisite wooden office desk called thr “Siamun executive desk” appeals with its classic looks and neat design. But just before you dismiss it in favor of a hi-tech workstation, you should know it hides a 22” LCD monitor within, hidden from view until you are ready to use it with the simple push of a remote control button. [Read more]

Financial Core Patio Guide – Toronto

BlogTO put this great list together. Personally, I like Jack Astor’s at Yonge and Dundas.

Here’s a roundup of 10 of the best patios in Toronto’s Financial District.

Bymark
At the south end of the TD Bank Tower overlooking Wellington (and across from Tory’s), one of Bay Street’s swankiest restaurants emerges from the PATH with a heated patio that’s partly covered with plenty of shade. An outdoor bar provides easy access to libations to wash down indulgent eats like the foie gras BLT or $35 burger.

Duke of Devon
Just east of Bymark near the corner of Bay and Wellington, the Duke of Devon offers a more casual, pub-like setting with a still Bay Street-ish menu featuring mini burgers, lobster caesar salad and watermelon mojitos. It’s the closest patio to the Design Exchange but something tells me that’s not really the draw.

Jump
Just as the name suggests, this bar and restaurant is really jumping come the late afternoon and early evening. The west facing patio in the courtyard of Commerce Court is large, attractive and comes complete with an outdoor bar and plenty of seating options. It’s more casual than Bymark but still sophisticated enough to inebriate clients with apple pie martinis and beer battered onion rings.

Ki
At the south-east corner of Wellington and Bay, this Brookfield Place destination serves up some of the freshest (if not priciest) sashimi in the city. The patio is perfect for couples or large groups and like most of the options in this part of town has an outdoor bar, heaters and comfy seating that’s a far cry from your typical plastic table and chairs setup.

Debut Cafe and Bar (121 King St. West)
What was that about plastic tables and chairs? For cheap suds in cheaper looking digs, the Debut Cafe and Bar is the place. Your’re much more likely to find temps here than traders but with a $3.99 all day breakfast and domestic bottled beer for under four bucks I don’t hear too many people complaining.

The Keg
One of Bay Street’s favourite hangouts, the Keg on York St. between Richmond and Adelaide has a small, covered street-side patio and a much larger one in the back. This is the patio to take large groups where fast and efficient service is made easy with a dedicated outside kitchen and bar area.

Reds Bistro & Wine Bar
At the north end of First Canadian Place where Adelaide meets Sheppard St., this high end wine bar draws an older crowd who come to its streamlined patio for housemade charcuterie, a 3,000 bottle wine cellar and a ridiculously large selection of cheese. With this large a wine list, it should be no surprise that Reds offers Toronto’s largest selection of by the glass wine options (currently 88).

Duke of Westminster
Located right next to Reds, this sister pub of the Duke of Devon (they have the same menu) has two small patio areas directly outside the north entrance of First Canadian Place. Green Moosehead umbrellas provide more than enough shade. Have a pint and then stop in and say hi to the friendly receptionists at the nearby Toronto Board of Trade.

Schezuan Schezuan
This Chinese restaurant makes for a good but greasy lunch-hour option on the second floor of the First Canadian Place. The south-facing patio overlooks King St. and is a nice alternative to the nearby food-court. Best during the noon-hour (read: don’t go after work).

Vertical
Also on the second floor of First Canadian Place, Vertical restaurant provides a stark contrast to its Chinese neighbour with white tablecloth service at its larger outdoor space where there’s slightly better views of the action on King St. below. The setting is much more elegant and attracts a well dressed executive-level crowd who rendezvous for mini meatball sandwiches and stiff margaritas.

BlackBerry Bold 9800 – Real Estate Weapons

Is this the new Blackberry Slider?

By now most people know that the BlackBerry Slider is no longer a myth and is in fact a real device. The first images were a bit blurry and hard to make out. Now you can end the squinting and look at these new higher resolution images of the first ever full QWERTY keyboard slider BlackBerry. Full Story.

Royal Bank Plaza – Leed Gold Marketing Piece

Oxford Properties has done a mailer outlining some of the great Leed Gold features of the Royal Bank building.  The only problem I have with it is it doesn’t motivate me to be there so what’s the point?

Impressions, thoughts on this market piece?

Evolution of the Call Center Cubical?

Just a thought, if you’re going to stack employees on top of one another do it in style!

Unplggd

Commercial Real Estate Map – Downtown Toronto

I use this map daily with clients looking for space Downtown Toronto.  Now you can use it too.

Click here. [Read more]

Augmented reality architecture

Original Post – Via

the digital production company qosmo teamed up terada design architects to create n building,a commercial tower in tokyo that has an augmented reality façade. the two companies collaborated to design a façade using two-dimensional QR codes that can be read using a mobile phone. users canpoint their device at the building and see up to date info from all the shops within. qosmo also developed an iphone application that allows people to see comments left by users, browse shop info and even download coupons. the comments are tagged through twitter using GPS and are continuously updated.

http://teradadesign.com

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

Commercial Real Estate News – Toronto – September 2009

Sobeys grocery chain gaining ground on Loblaw – loblaw.com – L-T – Loblaw is kicking off another round of grocery-store price wars, as rival Sobeys announces quarterly results showing it’s making gains on the market leader. Starting today, Loblaw said its Big Brands event moves into the Ontario market, as well as Atlantic and western Canada. The event is already running in Quebec. For three weeks, consumers will be able to stock up on popular national brands. Toronto Star, Sep 14, 2009

Strike stalled Toronto building permits – A wet July, a civic workers’ strike and the emergence of some kind of summer in August all set the stage for a mixed collection of housing numbers in Toronto. Housing starts for Toronto rose 19.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 23,700 units in August compared with July, according to this week’s numbers released by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. National Post, Sep 14, 2009

Canada’s first complete map-based real estate & rental listing platform – streetseed.com – Streetseed.com launches Canada’s first map-based real estate search site offering home and apartment listings from real estate representatives, property managers, and individuals. The real estate market is heating up; renters and homebuyers now have an easy and innovative way to view search results through a traditional list and a dynamic map-based view. Canada News Wire, Sep 14, 2009

First new Toronto office tower in a decade opens today – When dignitaries cut the ribbon at the Bay Adelaide Centre today, it will mark the opening of the first major office tower in the downtown core in nearly two decades — and two more are set to follow on its heels. The 43-storey RBC Centre, completed this summer, will officially open on Oct. 1, while the 30-storey Telus Tower is slated for completion in November. Each building offers about one million square feet of leasable office space. National Post, Sep 16, 2009

Allied Properties REIT acquires Toronto offfice property for $192-million – alliedpropertiesreit.com – AP.UN-T – Allied Properties REIT has entered into an agreement to purchase 151 Front St.W., Toronto, a Class I office property with 325,772 square feet of gross leasable area, 56 surface parking spaces and 750,000 square feet of approved intensification potential. The Toronto component of Allied’s portfolio will represent 56% of the total GLA, the Montreal component 35%, the Winnipeg component 7%, Quebec City component 3%. Daily Commercial News, Sep 16, 2009

Invest Toronto begins search for new CEO – investtoronto.ca – Toronto Mayor David Miller confirmed that the search for a new Chief Executive Officer for Invest Toronto will be undertaken by the Governance Committee of the Invest Toronto Board of Directors. The search for a new CEO follows the unfortunate resignation of Invest Toronto’s first CEO, Michael Bryant. The Governance Committee will be assisted in their recruitment by Knightsbridge Executive Search. Canada News Wire, Sep 15, 2009 Globe and Mail, Sep 15, 2009

Jones Lang LaSalle Starts Online Commercial Property Auction Service – auction.com – Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the second-biggest publicly traded commercial property broker, is joining with Real Estate Disposition Corp. to start an online auction service to sell commercial property and loans. Real Estate Disposition runs a Web site focusing on residential property sales. The site has sold more than $5 billion in assets since 2007. Bloomberg, Sep 16, 2009 Reuters, Sep 16, 2009

Toronto lands $200 million stimulus – Ottawa’s $200 million contribution in infrastructure stimulus funding for Toronto will help get work started on over 500 citywide construction projects valued at nearly $600 million. The funding is expected to preserve or create close to 7,000 jobs in the city and the federal portion is drawn from Ottawa’s $4 billion infrastructure stimulus fund. Daily Commercial News, Sep 16, 2009

Financial stability of tenants a big concern: Colliers – Commercial landlords say their biggest concern during the recession is the financial stability of tenants as tough economic times are resulting in higher vacancy rates and rent defaults. In a survey of Canadian commercial investors released by Colliers yesterday at a forum in Toronto for real estate executives, 92 per cent of respondents said “tenant financial credit rating” was at the top of their list. Toronto Star, Sep 18, 2009 Calgary Herald, Sep 18, 2009

Bay Adelaide Centre doors open – brookfieldproperties.com – BPO-T – Ric Clark is looking for a few good tenants. The CEO of Brookfield Properties Corp. officially opened Toronto’s newest office skyscraper yesterday. The Bay Adelaide Centre is the first significant development in the financial district in 17 years. Work on the site ground to a halt in 1991 after the economy slowed and now it opens during another challenging era. Toronto Star, Sep 17, 2009 Globe and Mail, Sep 17, 2009

Loblaw, Ryerson discuss Maple Leaf Gardens revamp – loblaw.com – L-T – Canada’s largest supermarket chain confirmed Wednesday it is in talks with Ryerson University about the future development of Maple Leaf Gardens. Inge van den Berg, senior vice-president of corporate affairs for Loblaw Companies Limited, said in an email to local media outlets the company was speaking with the university about the “possible future joint use” of the historic Toronto building. CBC, Sep 17, 2009

Canadian office vacancy rate climbs in Q3: CBRE – cbre.ca – Vacancy rates in Canada’s commercial real estate market rose in the third quarter and a recovery in the sector is still months away as the country pulls out of the recession. The overall year-over-year vacancy rate for both downtown and suburban office markets climbed to 9.4% from 6.3%, CBRE said in its third-quarter report on national office and industrial trends. Financial Post, Sep 21, 2009 Calgary Herald, Sep 21, 2009 Globe Investor, Sep 21, 2009

CN Tower remains world’s tallest tower, Guinness says – Toronto’s glorious CN Tower may have lost some of its international allure when an upstart Abu Dubai office tower took its title as world’s tallest structure, but it will not have its name stricken entirely from the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness record keepers announced today the CN Tower, at 553.3 metres, is still considered the world’s tallest tower. Burj Dubai measuring in at 818 metres. National Post, Sep 21, 2009

Glut of office space looms large in Toronto and Calgary – A glut of vacant office space will hit the Toronto and Calgary markets over the next two years, likely driving down rental rates for some time. Three large office towers are slated to open in downtown Toronto before the end of this year alone, making up a large chunk of the 4.7 million square feet of commercial space that is expected to become available in 2009-2010. Wall St. Journal, Sep 23, 2009 Globe and Mail, Sep 23, 2009 Toronto Star, Sep 23, 2009

NAI Global enhances coverage of Toronto market with Ashlar Urban Realty – ashlarurban.com – NAI Global, the world’s premier managed network of commercial real estate firms and one of the largest real estate services providers worldwide, announced today it is enhancing its coverage in Canada with the signing of Ashlar Urban Realty in Toronto. Ashlar Urban is a privately owned Canadian real estate brokerage specializing in office and retail leasing, investment sales, and advisory services. Canada News Wire, Sep 23, 2009

Onex eyes U.S. commercial real estate – onex.com – Onex Corp., the Canadian private equity firm, sees potential for acquisitions in U.S. commercial real estate, but does not plan to use much of its $4-billion war chest to invest in it. Onex Managing Director Andrew Sheiner told investors on Thursday that the company, whose investments range from cosmetics to gaming, hoped to take advantage of a looming crisis in the business of leasing U.S. office space. Globe and Mail, Sep 25, 2009 National Post, Sep 25, 2009

Canada’s tallest office tower gets a $100-million facelift – Carrera marble is so 1975. The Italian white marble that clads Canada’s tallest office tower, First Canadian Place, is coming down next year, all 45,000 slabs of it, the owners announced today. In its place, workers will install 7,800 panels of white glass. All of which is good news; two years ago a slab of marble, roughly a metre square, fell off the building after a spring rainstorm. National Post, Sep 24, 2009

Pricey Bloor Street nation’s top retail spot – Wayne Kingsland is looking to expand his Bloor St. boutique. But despite a recession that has hit the luxury goods market globally, he’s had a tough time finding the perfect spot on Toronto’s most exclusive retail strip. “Bloor St. is where we want to remain because we want to be in proximity to the carriage trade and other international brands,” says Kingsland, owner of the Montblanc boutique on Bloor. Toronto Star, Sep 24, 2009

Ashlar Urban Brokers User-Sale of Character Office Building in Toronto – ashlarurban.com – Northern Lights Direct Response Television Inc., a leading brand-based agency offering production services in the United States and Canada has purchased a 20,000 square feet of gross Class B office in Toronto, Ontario. Ashlar Urban brokered the sale of 15 Duncan Street, between King and Adelaide Streets in the Financial Core. Canada News Wire, Sep 30, 2009

Greening the Toronto Financial District – Toronto’s biggest capitalists got together today to discuss ways of reducing the city’s collective carbon footprint. The meeting, organized by the Toronto City Summit Alliance, was the first time bank tenants and high profile landlords sat down together to discuss ways to improve energy efficiency. National Post, Sep 30, 2009 Canada News Wire, Sep 30, 2009

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Commercial Real Estate Video Marketing

Combine video walkthrough and 3d renderings for that great 1 – 2 punch.

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