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Aura, Canada's tallest condo tower, has transformed the Toronto skyline. (Kites are furious.) And the retail and amenities at the base of this 78-storey behemoth have spurred a revitalization of the surrounding College Park neighbourhood. We met up with Canderel sales VP Riz Dhanji to find out more.  Aura, in addition to Canderel's Residences of College Park condo towers, has infused new life into a historic area that had fallen into disrepair, he says. Thousands of young professionals have moved here in recent years. To cater to the lucrative, captive market, Canderel populated Aura's podium with large-scale US retailers eager to be in the heart of downtown Toronto, including Bed Bath & Beyond and Marshalls, each with 50k SF spaces on the second and third floors, respectively. (Toronto will finally get a taste of the mysterious "Beyond" section.) "It was a huge coup to be able to get these guys," Riz says.  Vertical retail was a new concept in Canada when Canderel leasing VP Michael Vilner did the deals back in 2007. "But the American retailers were used to it," he says, noting that Bed Bath & Beyond and Marshalls had experienced success being located on upper floors in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. "It's the only way you can find large space in the urban setting in Toronto," he says. And once the retailers understood there would be a "small city" of nearly 1,000 residential units right above them, "it made their decision even easier." (Residents can get out of bed, take a bath, and take the elevator to pick up anything they were missing during those activities.)  Aura was already a big deal, but Madonna put it on the global map when she came to town in February to launch one of her Hard Candy Fitness centres in a 40k SF space at the base of the tower (she's pictured here at the grand opening event). Residents get free access to the facility, which is "not your normal condo gym," Riz says. Hard Candy expects to sign up to 6,000 new members over the next year. Canderel is also revamping the shopping mall in the adjacent 777 Bay office complex, having added a new Sobeys grocery store, among other retailers.  In addition to retail, Canderel is sinking $3M into the renovation of an existing three-acre park which the condo buildings overlook—valuable green space in the centre of the city. And the opening over the past year of three SIR Corp restaurants along Gerrard Street—Dukes Refresher, Scaddabush, and Reds Midtown Tavern—has brought new vibrancy to street level. All three establishments have patios located on the far side of a newly widened sidewalk, giving this once-sketchy stretch an inviting "European flavour," says Riz. "It adds animation to the street." |
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Baby Falcon Hatches at MEC |
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 Overseeing the birth of a baby falcon is not your typical day's work for a property manager. But Mississauga Executive Centre's Catherine Grammatikos had the experience this past spring when MEC's resident falcons, Sante and Rogue, welcomed their first hatch, baby Mason (pictured). "It's definitely a unique scenario for a property manager," Catherine tells us, noting that office-park tenants could watch all the baby-falcon action via a live feed of a nest box located on top of the 1 Robert Speck Parkway tower. |
 Mason was Canada's first falcon hatch of 2014, according to the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, which installed the nest box several years ago as part of a joint effort with MEC to protect the local falcon population. "It's what we do here," says Catherine. "We're surrounded by lots of green space and have many species of birds flying around." She hasn't seen Mason for a while, but says he's already near full weight and height. "Guess he's taken off on his own now." |
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Why Toronto's Vacancy Dip is Different Toronto's office market was the only one in Canada to see vacancy rates decline in the past quarter. Colliers analyst Curtis Scott tells us that while there's just as much new supply coming to market in Toronto as in Vancouver and Calgary, we're being bolstered by the wave of young professionals moving into downtown condos. "There's lots of support on the residential side," Curtis says, which is great for tenants, particularly those in finance, insurance, and real estate, who "want to be around a young professional demographic." Curtis will himself be around that demographic quite a bit this summer—he's a guest at six weddings. |
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