Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

Tewder said:
I would agree that a department store at this location would be perfect, like a Bloomingdales or a Galleries Lafayette.
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I would love a Takashimaya! Actually, I would settle for just their lower-level food court/market. It is truly a thing to behold.
 
Tewder said:
I would agree that a department store at this location would be perfect, like a Bloomingdales or a Galleries Lafayette.
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This article just confirms that this is a hot area for retail.

Pricey Bloor 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.

When Montblanc – a Swiss purveyor of luxury pens, watches and other accessories – started scouting for a Canadian flagship store 14 years ago, Bloor St. was the first and only choice, Kingsland says. Luxury goods retailers such as Prada, Hermès and Chanel seem to agree.

In fact, Toronto's "mink mile" remains the most expensive street in Canada for retailers, according to a Cushman & Wakefield study released yesterday, costing an average of $300 per square foot annually to set up a retail store. For a 1,000-square-foot boutique such as the Montblanc space, that could mean an average cost of $300,000 annually just for rent.

That's doable if, for example, you sold a fountain pen for $40,000, as Kingsland did this month. Cheaper items include a rose gold watch with a chronograph for $15,000.

Things are going well enough that Kingsland has been looking over the past six months to at least double, and possibly triple, his space.

Another attraction is that the street is undergoing an extensive renovation, including wider sidewalks and more pedestrian-friendly boulevards, he says.

"The market has been weak because of the recession, but over the last few months it's been picking up and moving in the right direction, so we still have confidence."

Of the more than 300 Montblanc boutiques globally, Kingsland says his store is in the top 10 in terms of sales per square foot. "Canada has not been as badly affected as some other parts of the world," he says.

According to Cushman, more than half of the world's top shopping streets were hit hard by the global downturn, with 54 per cent reporting that rents had fallen.

Toronto bucked the trend with rents unchanged over the past year.

"Bloor St. has almost been recession-proof," says John Crombie, senior managing director of Cushman & Wakefield.

"This is Canada's prime spot and there isn't a lot of turnover or vacancy."

One reason is that the prime retail area of the strip is relatively short – from Yonge St. to Avenue Rd. – so international brands typically have a hard time finding good locations.

Sources say the area is still in demand, with retailers such as Apple Canada looking for a spot for a flagship store.

But the strip has not remained untouched by the recession. During boom times, "key money" given to landlords to entice tenants to move out was also common, says Crombie. But that is no longer a standard practice.

Another prestigious retailer, Brooks Brothers, was thought to have secured the rights to a spot on the strip, but decided to scale back plans, according to one source. The menswear retailer opened instead in the Royal Bank Plaza.

While rents held firm on Bloor, the same wasn't true for Queen St. W., where it costs 15 per cent less, or $110 per square foot annually, to set up shop in Toronto's trendy boutique zone.

"Customers on Queen St. would probably be a lot more affected by the recession than customers on Bloor St., who will still have a lot of discretionary income," Crombie says.

In second place nationally was Vancouver's Robson St., where it cost $210 per square foot for retailers. Montreal's Ste.-Catherine West was in third place at $200 per square foot.

Globally, Toronto placed 21st in the world as the most expensive place for retailers, unchanged from last year.

New York's Fifth Avenue remains the most expensive street in the world at $1,700 (U.S.) per square foot, but that's down 8 per cent from last year. Setting up shop in top retail areas such as Fifth Avenue might in some cases be a money-losing exercise. But the stores serve as giant billboards that create a halo effect for the brand.

Hong Kong's Causeway Bay was the second most expensive place globally at $1,525 per square foot, followed by Paris' avenue des Champs Élysées at $1,009.

The biggest drop in rents worldwide was in Mumbai, falling 63.5 per cent on Colaba Causeway, the city's most prestigious street.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/699449
 
1 Bloor E. condo project scaled down
Last Updated: Thursday, September 17, 2009 | 5:47 PM ET Comments22Recommend14CBC News

A building that was once slated to become the tallest condominium tower in Canada will be more modest in stature by the time it's constructed, the project's new developer said Thursday.

Great Gulf Homes, a Toronto-based developer, finalized a deal Wednesday to acquire the empty lot at 1 Bloor Street East, on the corner of Bloor and Yonge streets.

Two years ago, the plan of the site's former developer, Bazis International, was to build an 80-storey condominium building on the lot by 2011.

Great Gulf's plan is to build a smaller building that includes luxury condominiums and retail stores, said president and CEO Jerry Patava.

"I don't think it'll be the same height as the previous developers' aspirations, but we will be a typical highrise building," he said.

When plans to build the tower were first unveiled in April 2007, demand for units soared in lockstep with Toronto's booming condominium market at the time. In November of that year, people camped out for days in front of the building's sales office to bid for units, which ranged in price from $300,000 to $2 million.

But construction plans were shelved after Bazis International ran into financing problems after the collapse of one of their backers — investment bank Lehman Brothers — in September 2008.

The fate of the project remained in limbo until Bazis reached a deal in principle to sell the building to Great Gulf in late August.
 
Modesty wins the game :). This is why I love Toronto.

As much as I love places like NYC... things happen too fast. Decisions are rash.

I look foward to this much more realistic, yet sexyyy proposal.
 
Homer said:
A building that was once slated to become the tallest condominium tower in Canada will be more modest in stature by the time it's constructed, the project's new developer said.
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In other words folks we are financially tight and dont have the money to spend on anything that might break us, we would rather be safe than sorry.
Hey....Nothing wrong with that, considering the location i just wished that some of the bigger high-rollers had bought into this property.
 
SP!RE said:
Modesty wins the game :). This is why I love Toronto.

As much as I love places like NYC... things happen too fast. Decisions are rash.

I look foward to this much more realistic, yet sexyyy proposal.
Click to expand...

I feel the complete opposite. Penchant for the modest is one of my primary beefs/irritants with Toronto. Things happen here far too slowly. I'm not looking forward to the under whelming proposal that is sure to follow. Oh well, I can go elsewhere to be visually stimulated by a skyscraper: a few blocks south with AURA, or a few blocks further south in the CBD. The possibility of something of impressive scale at Yonge and Bloor looks off the table for now.

I suppose, culturally I'll never be in line with this typical Canadian aversion to the grandiose or extravagant. C'est la vie!
 
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It is a Canadian trait indeed, hehe.

I am not opposed to height, btw. Didn't want to give off that impression. But I'm just saying, if the market didn't allow for 1 Bloor to be so tall, then... well... it shouldn't. That's unrealistic, unsustainable, etc. etc.

But yeah. I still think what we get will be a treat. If it's Hariri Pontarini as some sources have stated then I think it will be something different.
 
SP!RE said:
It is a Canadian trait indeed, hehe.

I am not opposed to height, btw. Didn't want to give off that impression. But I'm just saying, if the market didn't allow for 1 Bloor to be so tall, then... well... it shouldn't. That's unrealistic, unsustainable, etc. etc.

But yeah. I still think what we get will be a treat. If it's Hariri Pontarini as some sources have stated then I think it will be something different.
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I'm British by birth, not exactly a nation with a history for the under stated. Even though I moved to Canada at 11, and consider myself 100% Canadian, there are somethings that I'll never grow accustomed to.

I understand the need to satisfy market forces, but some degree of city planning should interfere with that too. Yonge and Bloor should house a substantial building. If the market can't support one now, the lot should go vacant till the market can support it. Isn't that one of the reasons why we have urban planners in the first place? Zoning? City planning? Transit nodes?
 
Hmm... but that's a very economist view of urban planning.

Others would argue that the cultural aspect of this corner is such that a lot sitting empty is a disastrous concept, for even a short period of time, given the importance of this intersection.

It's the neverending debate, haha.
 
Short-sightedness can cost us in the long run though, and usually does in Toronto. If ever there was a place with a mandate for tall, dense and grand it is Yonge/Bloor at the intersection of the city's only major subway/public transit nodes. I feel that the city should set requirements and encourage an appropriate scale for developments in key locations as a model for other such sites.
 
SP!RE said:
Others would argue that the cultural aspect of this corner is such that a lot sitting empty is a disastrous concept, for even a short period of time, given the importance of this intersection.
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Yeah... its sitting empty cause the city screwed up giving out demolition permits without having a full comitment at the time from a legitimate developer. We could have still been enjoying a Harveys angus burger.:)
 
I'm sure a high profile international design competition would generate lots of interest and potential buyers. Didn't this approach work somewhere else?
 
isaidso said:
I feel the complete opposite. Penchant for the modest is one of my primary beefs/irritants with Toronto. Things happen here far too slowly. I'm not looking forward to the under whelming proposal that is sure to follow. Oh well, I can go elsewhere to be visually stimulated by a skyscraper: a few blocks south with AURA, or a few blocks further south in the CBD. The possibility of something of impressive scale at Yonge and Bloor looks off the table for now.
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Took the words out of my mouth, isaidso. GT here, by the way.
 
Homer said:
1 Bloor E. condo project scaled down
Last Updated: Thursday, September 17, 2009 | 5:47 PM ET Comments22Recommend14CBC News

A building that was once slated to become the tallest condominium tower in Canada will be more modest in stature by the time it's constructed, the project's new developer said Thursday.

Great Gulf Homes, a Toronto-based developer, finalized a deal Wednesday to acquire the empty lot at 1 Bloor Street East, on the corner of Bloor and Yonge streets.

Two years ago, the plan of the site's former developer, Bazis International, was to build an 80-storey condominium building on the lot by 2011.

Great Gulf's plan is to build a smaller building that includes luxury condominiums and retail stores, said president and CEO Jerry Patava.

"I don't think it'll be the same height as the previous developers' aspirations, but we will be a typical highrise building," he said.

When plans to build the tower were first unveiled in April 2007, demand for units soared in lockstep with Toronto's booming condominium market at the time. In November of that year, people camped out for days in front of the building's sales office to bid for units, which ranged in price from $300,000 to $2 million.

But construction plans were shelved after Bazis International ran into financing problems after the collapse of one of their backers — investment bank Lehman Brothers — in September 2008.

The fate of the project remained in limbo until Bazis reached a deal in principle to sell the building to Great Gulf in late August.
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SP!RE said:
Modesty wins the game :). This is why I love Toronto.

As much as I love places like NYC... things happen too fast. Decisions are rash.

I look foward to this much more realistic, yet sexyyy proposal.
Click to expand...

Sexy? The damn press release states clearly that it will be a "typical highrise." Not something special, not something moving, not even something remarkable; something...typical. So should we take bets? Will it be Kirkor? Rafael and BigAzzKazz? P+S? Or perhaps some hideous agglomeration of all the worst firms in the city, working in concert to bring you:

Number One Bloor: It Could Be in Markham.
Number One Bloor: Precast and Spandrel Panel Living from the 200's.
Number One Bloor: The Essence of Mediocrity
Number One Bloor: Who F***'n Cares?

SP!RE said:
It is a Canadian trait indeed, hehe.

I am not opposed to height, btw. Didn't want to give off that impression. But I'm just saying, if the market didn't allow for 1 Bloor to be so tall, then... well... it shouldn't. That's unrealistic, unsustainable, etc. etc.

But yeah. I still think what we get will be a treat. If it's Hariri Pontarini as some sources have stated then I think it will be something different.
Click to expand...

Why is that funny? Being mediocre and short on vision is something which Toronto seems to pride itself on, but you dare joke about that? Also, the "market" did allow for something this tall. Were the crash not to have happened last September, 1BE would surely have been constructed as envisioned (or close to it). That's not to say that it was a brilliant bit of building or even that it was remarkable - but at least because it was tall, it had something going for it. I wouldn't care if the new building was 140m if we could be guaranteed it would shine. It is however, not very encouraging when even the Developer's snake-oil-salesman, who knows that the public has yet to see the design, describes it as "typical." Great Gulf, you should be ashamed.

*P.S. - These are just initial projections. I could (and hope I will) be proven entirely wrong.
 
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