Marcus & Millichap's Big First Year in Toronto
Marcus & Millichap's Toronto office has been open just over a year, and broker of record Daniel Holmes tells us it's been a triumphant inaugural annum for these “new kids on the block,” with seven deals done in December alone and an agent army that grows bigger each month.
Daniel's mission upon launching the Toronto branch: build the local M&M team while forging office culture. And broker deals, of course. Daniel and company have done the team-building part. “Our target was 22 agents and we're at 23 at the moment,” drawing talent from boutique brokerages around town; even a few young bucks from Guelph University's real estate program. And the firm's looking to grow further. “We took 6k SF and we've still got empty desks,” Daniel says, referring to M&M's 20 Queen St W HQ.  The culture's coming along too. The office has an SNL-inspired cowbell, used to celebrate listings and deals (one agent got so excited upon closing a deal, he broke a drumstick). Speaking of deals, highlights for M&M's first year in Toronto include brokering the sale of 577 and 579 King St W (seen above) for $4.1M to a “big time” local developer who plans to reinvest in the mixed-use buildings, which have retail at grade and apartments above, Daniel says. M&M also handled the $1.5M sale of 410 Dundas St E (below), a charming 4k SF brick-and-beam building with ground-floor offices and retail space, and music studios in the basement.
 Daniel says his group is working on more deals across Ontario, in Oshawa, Port Colborne, Kingston and Ottawa. He believes his brokers have an advantage because they specialize on a particular product type—whether it be office, industrial, multifamily or retail—in a particular part of the city. “So there's no way an agent who's a jack of all trades can compete with ours,” he reasons. M&M continues to build its TO presence, and 2015 will see it establish a foothold in other Canadian centres, with Ottawa the first stop planned. “The firm's backing us with expansion into more markets,” Daniel says. “Which is a sign this is working.”
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Top stories on Bisnow.com
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Canada's Most Expensive Street for Offices
You gotta pay to be on Bay. For the fourth year in a row, Bay Street topped JLL's ranking of Canada's Most Expensive Streets for Office Space. The average asking rent on Bay—home to the HQs of banks, investment houses, and accounting and law firms—is $68.52/SF, with Brookfield Place at 161 Bay commanding the highest office rents of any building in Canada. Second was 8th Avenue SW in Calgary ($59.06/SF); Burrard Street in Vancouver, at $58.87/SF, took third spot. While new inventory coming online in markets like Toronto will lead to rent decreases in older Class-A stock, JLL Canada president Brett Miller predicts “headline rents in new developments may raise the top-line rents.”
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Second Cup Opens
Cafe of the Future
Second Cup is giving its brand a big jolt with the unveiling last week of the “cafe of the future” at its 289 King St W location. Renamed Second Cup Coffee Co, the transformed 850 SF shop promises a “coffee-centric” experience, with a slow bar (seen above) that lets customers interact with baristas and hone coffee-tasting skills; and a Steampunk coffee/tea brewing system that enables baristas to set particular brew parameters to suit specific tastes. There are also wireless charging pads built into the counter. The King Street Second Cup is a “coffee laboratory,” the retailer says, with its best features rolled out nationally next spring in a bid to “re-establish our position of prominence,” says The Second Cup president and CEO Alix Box. |
Toronto CREW Hustles, Bumps the Night Away
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Toronto CREW wasted no time getting into the holiday spirit with its Seasons Celebration at Valdez Restaurant on King Street West. The event saw more than 100 members come out for an evening of festive cheer. “The party got into full drive,” CREW national business development manager Tina Wolf tells us, “when Disco Diva Danielle got some of the Toronto Crew dancing queens and kings up on the dance floor, where they learned the hustle and to bump.” |
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Snapped at the event were organizers Sharon Cooper and Maxine Morris Zecchini of High Peak Realties (soon to be McCor Realties). The evening opened with remarks from Toronto CREW president-elect Tara Piurko, of McCarthy Tétrault, who noted organizational milestones from the year, including the recruitment of a record 62 new members. |
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Last Night at Bisnow's Boston Power Women!
450 joined us last night to make a champagne toast to the top 50 women in Boston commercial real estate at The State Room, 60 State St. Leading up to the awards, we profiled these amazing leaders and role models in an eight-part series, which we'd like to share with you today. Here are the 50 women and their profiles:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Boston marks Bisnow's last Power Women event for 2014. It was part of a nationwide initiative in which we profiled and celebrated the top 300 commercial real estate women in DC, NY, Dallas, Atlanta, LA, and Chicago. We thank all of the many women, sponsors and supporters for making it possible. |
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