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Banking on Regent Park
Royal Bank branch to anchor 16-storey condo in revitalization
Nov. 29, 2006. 05:27 AM
JENNIFER WELLS
BUSINESS COLUMNIST
Viewed from Martin Blake's 34th-floor window on Queen St., just west of Yonge, Regent Park is a miniaturist study. The grey of November washes over the horizon, its brittle and barren tree tops, its doll-sized real estate.
"You see the green dome of the church over there," Blake says, the splash of green useful in directing a visitor's gaze toward the vast revitalization of a neighbourhood.
Eight months ago, a walk along those streets — its major arteries and smaller laneways — made real what Derek Ballantyne, CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corp., called "the absence of those things that render a feel of completeness to a neighbourhood." One of the most yawning: the hollowing out of banking services. Where once there were 12 full-service bank branches, only one remained.
But lo, Mr. Blake has cheering news. As vice-president of project implementation for Daniels Corp., Blake is overseeing the Regent Park rebirth, Daniels Corp. having signed on in March as project developer for Phase 1 of the project. In partnership with TCHC, Daniels will build the brand-new marked-to-market condominiums, and brand new TCHC rent-geared-to-income housing and brand new commercial space, including, hallelujah, a brand-new full-service branch of the Royal Bank at the northwest corner of Regent St. and Dundas St. E. A binding letter of intent has been signed. Before Christmas, if all goes as planned, Daniels will be taking the building proposal before the project's design review committee, and then it's on to city hall with the site application. Construction is slated for the spring.
"We went to every major bank," says Blake of the proactive wooing of the financial community. "We sat down with them. We went through the plans that had been designed by TCHC. ... We outlined the parameters that we were looking for in partners, because it isn't just a question of a commercial lease with us, it's a partnership."
What residents will see: a 3,800-square-foot-or-so Royal Bank branch anchoring a 16-storey condominium, not unlike the branches one sees anchoring all those condos popping up on King St. W. "We see this as an opportunity to be part of an exciting and I would say historic redevelopment," says Alexis Mantell, RBC's communication manager for the greater Toronto region.
Both Mantell and Blake speak to the "partnership" issue: the Royal's recent involvement with an on-site job fair and the bank's commitment going forward to try to seed the new branch with employees from Regent Park.
This is all to the good.
Undoubtedly, the mixed-use form of the new neighbourhood helped make the business case. "Our goal," says Blake, "is to ensure that as you walk along you don't come to a block of all-market housing, or a block of all TCHC rent-geared-to-income housing. We want people to walk along and have no idea if they're looking at a rental or a market condominium. We don't want to repeat what you saw in Regent Park where everything looked similar."
The brick block uniformity, the isolation from the broader community, the streets that wind in on themselves as opposed to connecting with the world beyond, the near total absence of commercial activity. The list of failures is long and well told.
It is imperative that the housing and commercial mix be got right this time, and the banking community is an essential piece of that. Last spring, in an interview, Diana Taylor spoke of the need to connect the financial community with low-income neighbourhoods. Taylor is the superintendent of banking for the State of New York, and has made equitable and fairly priced financial services a priority. "Our whole motivation here is to get people into banks," she said. "It's a mechanism for saving money, and it's a really good way to get people into the financial system and building credit." A key element, in other words, in the revitalization of the individual within the revitalization of the broader community.
In the absence of conventional lenders, Regent Park and neighbourhoods like it have witnessed the profusion of cheque-cashing operations, including, it must be said, the Royal Bank's own Cash & Save operation, a non-deposit-taking, non-lending extension of the Royal which charges 1.99 per cent of the face value of the cheque, plus a 99-cent processing fee. It can be hoped a full-service branch of the Royal will render such an operation unnecessary.
The buzz is building. Daniels Corp. is talking to two of the national grocery chains, and hopes, says Blake, to make an announcement before Christmas as to which will be moving into Phase 1. The planned footprint would put the grocery store cheek-by-jowl with the bank. "They want to be here," says Blake of the potential commercial tenants. "We're not having to incentivize people to come into this area. They're not looking for breaks on lease rates or anything like that."
Next up: Very likely one of the coffee chains, followed by a fourth commercial tenant, the nature of which has not been decided upon.
But the story, insists Blake, is bigger than Regent Park. "People refer to the revitalization of Regent Park. I think it's more than that," he says. "I think it's the revitalization of the downtown east side. I think all of the commercial people are recognizing the huge potential."
"Everybody is very aware of the changes that are about to happen," echoes the Royal's Mantell.
Derek Ballantyne calls the Royal's decision a "real vote of confidence." A potent symbol, as I've said before, that was long overdue.