Toronto MaRS Centre Phase 2 | 112.77m | 20s | Alexandria | B+H

If financing is the main issue in question then yes the government *can* lend a helping had (no pun intended) ... I won't get into wheather even that is necessarily a good thing or not.

But I think the problem is twofold, yes there may be some financing issues but they're probably issues with the # of tenants leased as well. I don't see how the government can help with that in any direct way that would lead to this turning around immediately. If they want to help small start up companies then invest more in R&D in the medical sector. But that will obviously not automatically translate into more demand from day 1.
 
Sounds to me like we're going to get a shrunken version of MaRS II. There are probably economies attached to resuming construction soon rather than dismantling everything, cranes and all. And it's equally unlikely that demand will suddenly appear. So my guess is that somewhere, there's an architect busy drawing up some revised plans with half the floors lopped off.
 
I still believe this project will rise, if not now then in a few years. One only needs to look at B-A, just hope it won't take that long.

federal spending is focused too much on futile extraction of Alberta oil sands

Have to disagree with that statement.
1.25 million barrels per day with reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels doesn't sound all that futile to me.
 
1.25 million barrels per day with reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels doesn't sound all that futile to me.

If you mean Canada, there is about 178 billion barrels of proven reserves. I'm not sure where this trillion figure is coming from.
 
I still believe this project will rise, if not now then in a few years. One only needs to look at B-A, just hope it won't take that long.



Have to disagree with that statement.
1.25 million barrels per day with reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels doesn't sound all that futile to me.

Extraction is dirty, expensive and doesn't have a future in any green shift plan I've seen from the opposition parties.
 
MARS PHASE II: CRANES SILENCED

The halting road to new discoveries
Despite the downturn, MaRS Phase I still has a waiting list for startups, while market-rate-paying tenants sit tight
JEFF GRAY
From the Globe

November 22, 2008

The bright orange hoarding around a corner of the downtown MaRS centre reads: "Ideas to Reality." But the idea in this case - the high-tech office cluster's planned $300-million high-rise expansion - has run into the reality of the global economic slowdown, as the project has been put on hold.

While cranes and a handful of workers were still on the site at University Avenue and College Street this week, MaRS's private partner, California-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., has stopped construction for now, leaving a few low concrete walls topped with rebar, reminiscent of the "stump" that sat for a decade after the aborted Bay-Adelaide Centre became a victim of the recessionary 1990s.

MaRS officials insist the delay is temporary and they could still see their addition completed in 2010. But it isn't the only bad news circulating in the rest of the gleaming complex, built in and around the old brick Toronto General Hospital in 2005 with $95-million in government money and $145-million in private cash. Now, some of the nascent biotech and information technology companies it caters to - dependent on venture capital - are also acutely feeling the economic downturn's pinch.

"We're getting killed," said Tony Cruz, chief executive officer of MaRS tenant Transition Therapeutics Inc., referring to his firm's stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. "Everybody's getting killed. Everything is down to the lowest levels you could ever think of. ... There is just a lack of cash."

Mr. Cruz says his more well-established firm, which has partnerships with big companies as it tests new treatments for diabetes and Alzheimer's, is in good financial shape until at least 2010. But he acknowledges that new biotech startups will have immense trouble finding investors.

So will MaRS see some or many of its roughly 70 tenants close up shop, making its soaring atrium feel like the middle of a half-empty recession-era shopping mall?

MaRS officials insist that, despite the downturn, there is still a waiting list for startups to get into the centre's subsidized lab space in its high-tech "incubator," and that its other tenants paying market-rate leases - among them the Royal Bank and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. - show no signs of leaving.

Ross Wallace, MaRS's director of strategic partnerships, said in an interview that in an economic downturn, MaRS's mission - to help academics and entrepreneurs turn their high-tech ideas into marketable, profitable companies, and to foster collaboration - becomes even more crucial as similar centres (but with billions in funding) spring up in Dubai and Singapore.

"As we look around and think about the Ontario economy of five or 10 or 20 years from now, the role of biotechnology, of information technology, of clean tech, is only going to become more important," Mr. Wallace said, adding that MaRS's goal is to keep people from leaving the province, to make money from their good ideas elsewhere.

MaRS itself, with a staff of about 30, offers seminars and advice to its tenants on how to attract investors and tries to encourage new kinds of collaboration among tenants, which in addition to private firms include researchers with the University of Toronto and the University Health Network. It has received what it says is "a one-time upfront operating grant" of $5-million from the province, but is mostly financed through rent.

Don Tapscott, a professor at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and the author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, among other books, said MaRS was a precious example of the kind of collaboration between private-sector companies that he argues will translate into success after the world weathers the current crisis.

"It would be a great tragedy if somehow it were not to fulfill its mission because of economic duress," Mr. Tapscott said. "... My view is that companies need to see this as an opportunity not merely to hunker down, but to change their business models and to innovate, and that a recession is a terrible thing to waste."
 
"stump"

"reminiscent of the "stump" that sat for a decade after the aborted Bay-Adelaide Centre became a victim of the recessionary 1990s."

I don't think any of us could have predicted that MaRS 2 would become the first 'stump' of this boom.

What, with the success of the first phase, the enlargement of plans for the second, and a government handout to boot, it almost doesn't seem to add up.

Does Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc get to hold onto Ontario's donation into this project for as long as they decide to sit on this?

Also, Weren't they going to fill a significant amount of space by running a long term hotel for scientists and families of patients in nearby hospitals?
 
It's unfortunate that this is such a prominent site to have a hole with hoarding sitting there for who knows how long (then again, remember Dundas Square...) Any idea if something can be done here so it doesn't look so 'abandoned'?
 
... Also, Weren't they going to fill a significant amount of space by running a long term hotel for scientists and families of patients in nearby hospitals?

I think it was determined some time ago that there was no hotel included in the plans. There may have been a couple of "guest suites", similar to what is found in some condo buildings.
 
It's been reported on SSC that Mars Phase II will be moving to Mississauga! Yes, moving ... whatever that implies.
There is apparently going to be a news release sometime in the future.

Future Mayor made the report after having a discussion with the Mayor her self ... this was during a meeting regarding the life science industry in Mississauga.

Does it make any sense? Nope not really ... I'm still leaning toward the side of a misunderstanding i.e. something along the lines of a few tenants slated for Mars Phase II will now build another building in Mississauga for their own use.

But who knows ... If this is the case it I would reckon that this project permanently is canceled.
 
... I'm still leaning toward the side of a misunderstanding i.e. something along the lines of a few tenants slated for Mars Phase II will now build another building in Mississauga for their own use.

Yeah, that was what it sounded like to me from the quote provided.
 
MaRS is physically located in downtown Toronto. So, no, it will not be moving to Mississauga.

I think this is all stemming from an overexcited post FutureMayor made in which he over-exaggerated the truth.
 
That was my first thought but he's not known to do that from what I recall.

He's been a source of a lot of reliable information from what I recall.
 
MaRS in Mississauga

I've never been proven wrong when I post an announcement about a project. Many here can confirm that I'm always on ball when it comes to anything Mississauga.

I'm looking forward to the press conference when all the details will be presented.

Louroz
 

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