Toronto 40 Rakely Court | 43.4m | 9s | Rakely-Eglinton Corp | NORR

[Marcanadian]

Six proposed office/commercial buildings consisting of 131,757 square metres of GFA.

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[innsertnamehere]

oh wow. That's huge for this area. 1.4 million square feet of office space is an absolute ton of space for the 905.

Interesting to see it on the Toronto side of the border - Typically a big reason companies move out this way is because of the significantly lower corporate property taxes. There is a reason all the large scale office space in the area is on the north side of Eglinton. Perhaps its a sign that the years of Toronto keeping commercial tax increases at basically 0% to lower them over time is finally paying off.

Also, almost entirely underground parking here is crazy expensive. There are barely any structured parking garages in the area, yet alone fully underground. I'd love to see the financials behind this.

Edit: taken a proper look at the plans. Parking is surprisingly low, "only" 1,800 parking spaces for the entire development. They are applying a rate of 1.5 spaces per 100sm office space. That's about half of what is typically required for "full suburban" offices that anticipate essentially 100% vehicle modal share, so this is going to have to be fairly transit oriented in terms of commuting to work. I guess the developer is hoping tenants will sign on expecting many employees to take the BRT? I wonder how that compares to existing transit rates for other office buildings in the area.

Also, there is a ton of retail.

 

[interchange42]

It makes me wonder if there's already a major tenant lined up, and if they are one of the few firms these days who have a workforce that mostly don't care that they're not downtown. For something with fewer spaces than normal for parking, it's odd that—while it is in the 416—it will only have MiWay buses serving it, making a transit commute here expensive for 416-dwellers.

If they don't have (a) major tenant(s) lined up, this could take years to fill. It all seems odd… especially when there's still a lot of empty development land with cheaper taxes right across Eglinton to the north and across the Etobicoke Creek on Tahoe. What's going on here… ?

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[taal]

Agreed this is really odd ! Maybe they didn't realize it was in Toronto

 

[innsertnamehere]

It makes me wonder if there's already a major tenant lined up, and if they are one of the few firms these days who have a workforce that mostly don't care that they're not downtown. For something with fewer spaces than normal for parking, it's odd that—while it is in the 416—it will only have MiWay buses serving it, making a transit commute here expensive for 416-dwellers.

If they don't have (a) major tenant(s) lined up, this could take years to fill. It all seems odd… especially when there's still a lot of empty development land with cheaper taxes right across Eglinton to the north and across the Etobicoke Creek on Tahoe. What's going on here… ?

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I don't think so, the plans clearly split it out into 3 phases, and even go as far to show how each floor of the buildings can be demised down to 1-2,000sf office units if needed.

The application form has "Rakely Eglinton Corporate Centre Limited Partnership" as the applicant, with an address at 1984 yonge street. A Joseph Canals is the signatory. Doesn't look like this is from one of the big guys.. Which makes me wonder who's paying for this all. It's not cheap, the application fee alone was over a million.

 

[ShonTron]

I don't think so, the plans clearly split it out into 3 phases, and even go as far to show how each floor of the buildings can be demised down to 1-2,000sf office units if needed.

The application form has "Rakely Eglinton Corporate Centre Limited Partnership" as the applicant, with an address at 1984 yonge street. A Joseph Canals is the signatory. Doesn't look like this is from one of the big guys.. Which makes me wonder who's paying for this all. It's not cheap, the application fee alone was over a million.

There's really no transit access without paying a double fare, even though this is technically in Toronto. Despite the Mississauga Transitway being right there. We really need to do something about these cross-border fares.

 

[north-of-anything]

It's only one bus ride away from the incoming highrise developments in Cooksville, and it's also just one transfer from Milton GO or the future HMLRT. The developers must have taken that into consideration.

On an unrelated topic, the guest who commented on the news announcement by saying this development was "a bit car-centric" blew me away. It looks absolutely metropolitan to me! Especially when you compare it to the sea of parking lots on the Mississauga side of Eglinton, which is why I'd be concerned about TTC service here as well.

 

[Buildguy]

This looks really well thought out. If you read the planning report these are office condos not rental. Page 5 of the report reads "40 Rakely Court is designed to evolve as a highly resilient employment district that can support a broad range of office condominium owners."

In terms of transit discussion the developers clearly have done the research to understand what's happening in the next few years especially with respect to the Pearson transit hub: https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/pearson-transit-hub

 

[interchange42]

This looks really well thought out. If you read the planning report these are office condos not rental. Page 5 of the report reads "40 Rakely Court is designed to evolve as a highly resilient employment district that can support a broad range of office condominium owners."

In terms of transit discussion the developers clearly have done the research to understand what's happening in the next few years especially with respect to the Pearson transit hub: https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/pearson-transit-hub

This is nowhere near the Pearson transit hub, and won't benefit from it in the slightest. This place will be easy enough for people to drive to, but for those on transit, it will only be easy/cheap for MiWay riders to access—unless the TTC extends the Eglinton West 32 further west (good luck), or unless we get true fare integration (impossibly good luck).

In regards to office condos, they have not proven to sell well lately, even at major transit stops like York Mills subway station.

Combined with the commercial real estate tax disparity on the two sides of the 416 boundary, unless you know something we don't, this does not scream "well thought out" at all.

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[Buildguy]

Just checking their application - there's a transit stop 50 m from the site.

Also, It's 6.3 kilometres from Pearson Airport. In planning terms that's very near. Check the map. That will specifically benefit this area which is considered the 'second largest employment zone in Canada.'

Seems well thought.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Just checking their application - there's a transit stop 50 m from the site.

Also, It's 6.3 kilometres from Pearson Airport. In planning terms that's very near. Check the map. That will specifically benefit this area which is considered the 'second largest employment zone in Canada.'

Seems well thought.

I dare you to walk 6.3km. Tell me thats transit accessible.

6.3km in planning terms is absolutely not "near". It's like saying you are close to Union Station at Woodbine Beach or High Park.

 

[Buildguy]

I don't think anyone was intending it to be walking distance from Pearson. It seems to be about a larger vision of urbanizing an extremely important part of the city where many thousands of people currently work. Many forward looking cities have employment areas directly adjacent to airports - take Schiphol for example in Amsterdam. It seems that concentrating employment next to an airport that is rapidly growing is just smart planning. Whether it's 2km or 6km - it seems to be about an adjacency. Think also of Amazon HQ2 positioning itself in Crystal City right next to Ronald Reagan National Airport.

 

[interchange42]

@Buildguy, Crystal City has a Metro station on a transit network that works across the region with a single fare.

This development has a MiWay Busway stop within walking distance. That's great for anyone who lives in Mississauga, but it's expensive for anyone who lives in the 416: they'll have to pay a second fare after waiting to transfer to a bus for a reasonably short ride. As mentioned already, and dodged by you already, something will need to change for this development to make sense for transit-riding Torontonians.

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[AHK]

@Buildguy, Crystal City has a Metro station on a transit network that works across the region with a single fare.

This development has a MiWay Busway stop within walking distance. That's great for anyone who lives in Mississauga, but it's expensive for anyone who lives in the 416: they'll have to pay a second fare after waiting to transfer to a bus for a reasonably short ride. As mentioned already, and dodged by you already, something will need to change for this development to make sense for transit-riding Torontonians.

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Even for some car driving Torontonians. Getting into this area in the morning is not too bad - keep to the right in the collector lanes as one nears the point where 427 northbound meets the 401, exit onto Eglinton and head west. There is a choice of staying on Eglinton, and putting up with the inevitable delay with the light at Renforth, or taking Matheson from Eglinton, which has an overpass to hop over Renforth. Either way - not too bad.

But getting out of this area, getting home in the City in the evening is another matter entirely. From eastbound on Eglinton to get onto the 427 southbound and then the Gardiner eastbound - yet to find a reasonably reliable path to go downtown.

 

[Buildguy]

@interchange42 not trying to dodge anything actually.

Often times it takes visionary projects to inspire change in transit development. It’s a debate that runs true for many projects across the city. Who would have imagined some of the areas in our city where visionary developers created projects and transit soon followed. Who would have imagined that Sterling Rd would become a major urban destination and then the Union Pearson (UP) connection would soon follow. I don’t think anyone would propose this much density without some understanding of the future of the city, it’s connection to downtown and it’s connection globally through Pearson. For sure, people will arrive there by car as it's shown in the plans but why not project a bold future. Good on them.