Financial District : In The News

At the Guardian, Paul French takes a look at Toronto’s PATH system, which now sprawls under 30 km of downtown streets.

"The explosive growth of Canada’s largest metropolis, evident from a nest of cranes toiling on a skyline where more high-rise towers are under construction than any other North American city, is fuelling expansion of the PATH system in lockstep,” he notes.

However, as much as the system is an engineering wonder, it’s not without its detractors, including residents who ask if it’s sucking street life off the streets, and architects like Jack Diamond who wish it could be a grander, more cohesive affair. Still, change is coming: the newest phases of the PATH are coming out from underground and into airy skywalks, as Toronto’s office core crosses the Gardiner and the railway lands.

Read the whole story here. 
Source: The Guardian.
 

Toronto is poised to be North America's first trading hub for China's yuan currency, allowing for direct exchange and trade operations between the Canadian dollar and yuan. The deal, announced last week, is being predicted to save Canadian companies up to $6.2 billion over the next decade.  

"TD analyst Diarra Sourang said in a report that the arrangement will likely mean an increase in Canadian exports to China, and especially benefit small and medium-sized companies trying to expand into the world's second largest economy," reports Reuters, adding that a TD report has predicted that financial institutions and the province of British Columbia will likely benefit most from the arrangement. 

Read the full article here. 
Source: Reuters

 

Advertising automation giant Rubicon has picked up the Toronto start-up, Shiny Ads, along with San Francisco-based iSocket, for the combined tune of just under $30 Million USD. 

The Wall Street Journal reports:
 
Shiny Ads' website describes the company a provider of "end-to-end programmatic direct advertising platform for digital publishers to sell more premium inventory for increased revenues and profits. By automating the process for advertisers of all sizes, Shiny Ads allows the direct sales team to focus on more complex ad buys and close more deals."


Read the full story here. 
Source: The Wall Street Journal




 

Travel guide gurus Lonely Planet have anointed Toronto among the world's Top 10 Cities to visit in 2015.

"Two North American metropolises on the well-beaten path bracket Lonely Planet's Top 10 Cities list for 2015, one of an annual variety of best-of and trend-spotting rankings announced this week by the travel publisher, which also compiled them into the Best in 2015 book and travel planner," reports the San Francisco Gate.
 

"The need to retain public spaces in our cities as they develop and grow requires increasingly ingenuitive thinking. A new development in Toronto shows just that sort of thinking in action," writes Gizmag about Toronto's soon-to-be-developed new green space hovering above the train tracks down near Union Station. 

The park, which will be located at 45-141 Bay Street between two buildings, is the work of real estate company Ivanhoé Cambridge for Metrolinx and is "part of the ongoing development of Union Station. The plans include the addition of a new bus terminal, two office buildings to be constructed standing either side of the rail corridor, and the park area between the buildings," the article says. 

The park will not only connect the buildings, which are designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, but will provide the city with a public space "for recreation and leisure" while also connecting them to the underground PATH. 

Another article in Bloomberg provides additional context. That article reports that the 2.7 million square foot office complex will cost around $2 billion, with construction set to begin in spring of 2015. 

Read the full story here. 
Original Source: Gizmag

Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat delivered a keynote speech at the Planning Institute Australia WA State Conference at the end of July to highlight Toronto’s “shift” to public transit and its mission to improve congestion, all while challenging the constraints of urban sprawl.

Perth and Toronto have different challenges. While Perth expands outward, Toronto’s challenge is to improve conditions within the boundaries of a city that has reached its growth boundary.  Still, Keesmaat said, Australia’s largest city with a population of just under two million could learn a thing or two from Toronto. 

“There might be some interesting lessons learned with respect to how you begin to transform to an advanced form of urbanism once you move away from that approach of continuing to develop in a very suburban way,” she said. 

“We’ve been there and gone down that trajectory over the course of the past 30 years and we’re now at a moment where we are beginning to urbanise our suburbs by focusing on adding mid-rise development along our corridors and by ensuring we have the density we need in order to make transit a real option.”

Toronto and Perth are both maturing cities, Keesmaat said, and as cities mature limits need to be put in place. She told Perth about Toronto’s protected greenbelt which caused a “fundamentally shift the land economics of the region and forced many suburban developers to become urban developers — they changed their game.” But beyond this, the focus of her speech remained on transportation and congestion, and its direct ties to population growth. 

She said planning high-density communities makes transit options more sustainable, the key to reducing traffic congestion in the long run. 

“It’s a zero-sum gain, that if you continue to plan low density communities there will never be environments that can successfully sustain public transit because there simply isn’t the critical mass to make high-frequency transit use work,” she said. 

For more from her speech, read the full story here. 
Original source: Perth Now

A group of significant Toronto startups including Wattpad, Shopify, InteraXon, Bionym, and Freshbooks have teamed up with Toronto Homecoming to launch an event designed to attract Canadians living abroad back to Toronto's "thriving technology startup ecosystem," a release stated. 

"Returning to Toronto was the best career move I've made, giving me the opportunity to join Bionym at such an exciting time," said Andrew D'Souza, President of Bionym, in the release. "The current wave of startup technology companies emerging from this ecosystem have enormous potential and represent trajectory-shifting career opportunities for those looking to take the next step as technology leaders. All of these companies have attracted capital, customers and partners from around the globe -- now they're looking to add world-class talent to build their businesses."

Toronto Homecoming's startup event will feature 10 to 15 startups looking to expand their employee base and entice homegrown talent back to the city. It is estimated some 300,000 Canadians live and work in the Bay Area alone. 

"Toronto Homecoming is excited to partner with startups that have significant momentum, funding and great leadership teams. We believe this new startup stream will attract more talent to Toronto, and Canada," said Andrew Graham, Toronto Homecoming's Co-Chair, in the release. "Toronto Homecoming shows Canada's next generation of world-class companies."

The event takes place October 9-11. Applications are open until August 1. 

Participating startups include:

•    Bionym
•    Shopify
•    WattPad
•    500px
•    Wave
•    Freshbooks
•    Achievers
•    Ecobee
•    WealthSimple
•    FinMaven
•    Soapbox
•    Shoebox
•    Interaxon
•    Tab Payments

For more information and registration click here. 
Original Source: Market Wired 

Earlier this month, we ran a story about rooftop beehives popping up around the city. One of the rooftops featured was that of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, which at the time of publishing had six hives that had produced some 800 lbs. of honey.

Now the hotel has announced "the introduction of its first pollinator bee hotel," Travel Daily Media reports.

"Supported by a partnership with Burt’s Bees and its annual ‘Wild for Bees’ campaign, Fairmont will develop five sustainable bee hotels – four in Toronto and one in Guelph – with the first launching at the Fairmont Royal York," the article reports.

The pilot program is designed to provide for, attract, and protect "lost and solidary bees by replicating their natural nesting sites." The bees will be able to breed, lay eggs, and seek solace from predators. The hotel will expand Toronto's pilot program at additional hotels throughout the next year. 

“Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is extremely excited about the addition of our new pollinator bee hotel and we look forward providing these pint-sized ‘guests’ with the five-star treatment they so deserve for keeping our ecosystems resilient,” said Alexandra Blum, vice president of public relations for FRHI Hotels & Resorts, in the article. 

The Fairmont supports bee ecosystems at more than 20 properties around the world. For more information on bees in Toronto read our feature story by Andrew Seale, Look up: Toronto is abuzz with rooftop beehives that boost the city's ecosystem.

Read the full story here. 
Original Source: Travel Daily Media

The New York Times reports on the downtown condo boom and Toronto's insatiable appetite for urban living.
 
"In the fourth quarter of 2011 alone, almost 900 condominium units were sold downtown, 25 percent of the approximately 3,600 condo sales citywide."
 
"A city survey released in March, Living in Downtown and the Centres, attributes the popularity of housing in Toronto's core to its proximity to work and transit options, cultural and entertainment sites, and the venues for the city's major league basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer franchises."
 
"'Many people like the convenience of not driving to work. They enjoy being in the center of everything and the downtown has lots of restaurants and shops,' said Oksana Jancevic, a sales representative at Royal LePage Real Estate Services who specializes in downtown properties. She settled here herself after relocating from Lithuania 10 years ago."
 
"The description makes sense considering that more than half of all downtown residents are single and between the ages 20 and 44, according to the new survey. More than 50 percent have at least a university degree and one third have annual household incomes of more than 100,000 Canadian dollars, or $98,000. When it comes to couples, 30 percent are childless."

Read the full story here
 
Original Source: The New York Times

The Toronto Star looks at the "greening" of Toronto's financial core. In addition to a surge in the construction of new sustainable office towers, many iconic Toronto buildings—from First Canadian Place to the TD Tower—are in the midst of massive "green" refurbishments.

"A number of Toronto’s landmark bank towers are now swaddled in scaffolding as they undergo a combined $300 to $400 million in refurbishments that include everything from updating their aged food courts to, in the case of First Canadian Place, replacing its almost 40-year-old marble façade."

"'The trophy towers are getting to that 30- and 40-year-old mark so they are hitting the gym again, so to speak, and getting into shape because they realize they aren't the only game in town anymore,' says John Peets, vice president of leasing for Oxford Properties."

"Oxford, the real estate arm of the OMERS pension fund, announced in October that it's teaming up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to do what would have been unthinkable a decade ago. They're building a 30-storey office tower between Bay and York Sts. that will become the new domestic banking headquarters for the Royal Bank of Canada."

"Most of the renos are aimed at helping the financial towers, the first of which was built in the 1960s, achieve so-called LEED certification—an internationally recognized acknowledgement that the building is energy efficient and environmentally sound."

read full story here
original source Toronto Star