Toronto is Booming, but how?

[rbt]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

This is the list I'm referring to below and not Emporis.

Read "About this list". The organizers of that list rely strongly on other skyscraper aggregation websites; of which Emporis is the most complete.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by rbt

Read "About this list". The organizers of that list rely strongly on other skyscraper aggregation websites; of which Emporis is the most complete.

Yeah, I forgot about that. They're all B.S.

[ACT7]

The 'Money Issue' of Toronto Life has an interesting read (almost half the magazine) on how and why Toronto is one of the most booming cities in the western world. I have the hard copy so I can't post a link but I encourage everyone to read it.

[isaidso]

Ok thanks. I'll go have a look.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by ACT7

The 'Money Issue' of Toronto Life has an interesting read (almost half the magazine) on how and why Toronto is one of the most booming cities in the western world. I have the hard copy so I can't post a link but I encourage everyone to read it.

I would say that right now, it is the most booming city in the western world. Anyway, I thought this was interesting. I back tracked the thread and didn't see it mentioned anywhere.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog...k-like-in-2020

[Taller, Better]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog...k-like-in-2020

This is the article that borrowed our very own member "Insertnamehere's" diagram! We were most proud of him. People don't realise how widely read these Toronto forums are by media and even members of the general public who don't make profiles here.

[ACT7]

This isn't even really news anymore, but still well worth posting...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle4629888/

Toronto leads North American high-rise construction

Six Canadian cities are among the top 10 in North America for the number of high-rises and skyscrapers being built, a finding that illustrates just how far the construction markets in Canada and the United States have diverged.

Toronto tops the list by a margin that has widened over the past year. Canada’s most populous city now has more than twice as many tall towers under construction as New York City, which takes the No. 2 spot, according to a study that will be released this week by German data-provider Emporis.

Toronto, which had 69.7-million square feet of office space and a vacancy rate of 5.1 per cent at the end of the third quarter, is expected to add nine more buildings totalling 5.6-million square feet.

[Taller, Better]

This usually leads to people making selective statistics about buildings over the height of 300 metres, etc... We have been in a building boom for so long now that I think most people lose sight of the enormity of it. Yesterday I was wandering around the area of the new ICE towers and was gobsmacked at the brand new density.

[GenericUser]

Toronto has 147 highrises UNDER CONSTRUCTION? :O Wow. I didn't think there was that much construction. Would anyone happen to know how many of those 147 (roughly) are in the downtown? Maybe around 50 or so? That's incredible.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

This is the article that borrowed our very own member "Insertnamehere's" diagram! We were most proud of him. People don't realise how widely read these Toronto forums are by media and even members of the general public who don't make profiles here.

I sure wish that were the case down here in the Miami forum. We'd probably see a lot more improvements and wiser decisions made by people with the wherewithal.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

This usually leads to people making selective statistics about buildings over the height of 300 metres, etc... We have been in a building boom for so long now that I think most people lose sight of the enormity of it. Yesterday I was wandering around the area of the new ICE towers and was gobsmacked at the brand new density.

I know! It all got pretty annoying down here in Miami too! We had one of the biggest building booms in the history of this country. What was Miami before the 21st century? Now we have one of the largest skylines in the country. Still we get "But you don't have any really tall buildings! You don't have a supertall!" Sheesh! By yourself a 300m dildo!

[softee]

Bolt an outhouse to the roof of First Canadian Place and it would magically become a "super tall".

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by softee

Bolt an outhouse to the roof of First Canadian Place and it would magically become a "super tall".

Thanks for the suggestion, but a spire will do!

[isaidso]

Pent Up Demand for Office Space

Unrelenting demand for office space in Toronto has pushed vacancy rates to lows not seen in decades and raised concerns that demand may far outstrip supply for years to come despite a spate of new towers that are in the works. The office vacancy rate is the lowest, just 5.1 per cent, in the downtown core, says a report by commercial brokerage Colliers International. That compares to about 6.3 per cent across the GTA. Ten per cent is considered a balanced vacancy rate.
.
Contributing to the supply-and-demand imbalance is that fact that just 1.6 million square feet of office space has been built across the GTA in the last two years, an “insignificant addition” to the 185 million square feet of office space that already exists, the report notes.
.
And it could be 2018 until some 13.5 million square feet of new office space is added to the core, assuming that 14 projects now in the planning or proposal stage go ahead, the report notes.

Courtesy of the Toronto Star


Full article: http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...ancy-rate-down

[isaidso]

14 projects now in the planning or proposal stage representing 13.5 million square feet? It looks like we're about to see a massive office tower boom to match the condo boom. To put that into context, Bay-Adelaide is 1.16 million square feet so we're talking about roughly 14 new office buildings that size.

I'd rather have 4-5 massive ones though.

[Innsertnamehere]

We currently know about 12 projects (13 if you count the new eatons center tower, 14 if you count 45 bay, and 15 if you count the Convention center redo), so that is mostly already projects that we know about.

The square footage of each project is listed in the brackets.
the list:

1. 495 King Street West (500,000)
2. Globe & Mail HQ (480,000)
3. King & Peter office building (800,000)
4. 43 Simcoe (1,100,000)
5. Queen Richmond Centre (300,000)
6. Bremner tower (700,000)
7. Ice Office tower (800,000)
8. One York (800,000)
9. Waterpark place III (930,000)
10. Richmond Adelaide centre III ( up to 1,000,000)
11. Bay Adelaide Centre West (900,000)
12.Old Toronto Sun building (new tower on parking lot, along with a 3 floor addition on top of existing building) (500,000)

"hypotheticals"

13. 3rd Eatons Centre office building (1,000,000?)
14. Metro Toronto Convention Centre redevelopment (2,100,000)
15. 45 Bay (2,000,000?)

so that's 8,810,000 square feet confirmed and up to 13,900,000 if you include the hypotheticals.

looks like that 13,900,00 number is pretty darn close to the 13.5 million stated in the article.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by isaidso

14 projects now in the planning or proposal stage representing 13.5 million square feet? It looks like we're about to see a massive office tower boom to match the condo boom. To put that into context, Bay-Adelaide is 1.16 million square feet so we're talking about roughly 14 new office buildings that size.

I'd rather have 4-5 massive ones though.

What are these 14 projects?

Or they haven't been announced yet.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Mercenary

What are these 14 projects?

Or they haven't been announced yet.

We know some of them, but details on most are sketchy at this point.

[Innsertnamehere]

see my above post...

[current]

The rental market is hot - moneyville article:
Condo Boom Backfiring On Renters

By Susan Pigg | Thu Nov 01 2012

Toronto renters have become unwitting victims of the condo boom. There may be a record number of new condo projects on the books, but rental demand is so high and projects are taking so long to build, the number of new investor-owned rental units ready for occupancy isn’t enough to fill the gap, according to condo market research firm Urbanation. New condo sales were down 30 per cent in third quarter over the second as developers held back launching new projects while they took a second look at pricing and units sizes in the face of softening demand.

But demand for investor-owned rental condos remains unrelenting as more people look to live and work downtown, and the shortage is unlikely to ease up soon, despite the fact a record 28,000 pre-construction condos were sold last year, says Ben Myers, executive vice president of Urbanation. It could take about four years before those preconstruction units sold last year translate into real places to live as condo build times get longer. Projects that took just 2.68 years from start of sales to occupancy a decade ago are now taking close to four. And while some 16,000 to 18,000 new units were expected to come on stream by the end of this year, just 13,000 are likely to be completed, says Myers. That means while there’s lots of digging going on — and endless talk about a condo bubble — too few condos are actually being completed to keep up with rental demand. Developers cite a host of factors, from smaller build sites requiring more complex design and deeper digging to taller projects requiring more intricate design. Even the reworking of plans has been a factor as projects got the green light for extra floors after sales had already started.

The demand/supply imbalance is playing out in bidding wars for rental condos and prescreening for units that’s almost as rigourous as buying a home. “I’d never heard of ‘bidding’ for an apartment,” says University of Toronto student David Wallace who spent six weeks looking for a place to rent before starting medical school. “The speed at which things went, I had no idea. They’d be (advertised) one day and gone the next.” Condo owners are routinely demanding credit checks, proof of salary and job confirmation letters before they’ll even consider a possible tenant, says realtor Mark Savel who helps clients buy and rent condos.

“I get clients asking me all the time, how could we have all these new condos and I can’t find a place to rent? But we have a lot of people coming to the city, we have a shortage of places to rent. I tell them, have all your paperwork ready and be prepared to offer more than they are asking for rent.” Some developers, like Empire Communities, are now looking to rent out their inventory of new condos that have been slow to sell since buyers started edging to the sidelines last spring. “No one wants to hold on to real estate, but this is a natural because the rental market is so crazy,” says long-time condo developer Paul Golini, executive vice president of Empire...

Read more: http://www.moneyville.ca/article/128...up-with-demand