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The sale of 65 Front St E shows the investment community grasps how competitive it is for heritage assets in the downtown core, according to Cushman & Wakefied AVP Elliot Medoff. (It's easier to ascend to the Iron Throne at this point.)  Elliot, center, was on a C&W listing team for the transaction that included managing director Nick Yanovski and VP Noah Rechtsman. The asset, at the corner of Front and Church (exposure and views directly into the financial core) traded at an even $10M ($455/SF). Elliot says the deal was actually a rare opportunity to buy a brick-and-beam, mixed-use building well leased to quality tenants (led by Second Cup), offering up stable cash flows.  Because properties like this don't come up for sale very often, Noah says, the process solicited interest from more than 50 purchasers, leading to multiple bids from public and private entities. (That must be how the homecoming queen feels.) The final price “surpassed the expectations of institutional investors,” he says. Nick says it was an aggressive list price, but still an excellent sale price, and that the deal reflects a continuing strong investment market in Toronto. |
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The Original Creative Office If you want to talk creative office, look no further than the Toronto Carpet Factory in Liberty Village, the flagship of York Heritage Properties. (Though you have to go elsewhere for quality carpets at affordable prices.) York partner Robert Eisenberg is one of the panelists at Bisnow's Creative Office Summit this Tuesday at the Shangri-La Hotel (register), and we're excited to have him since Bob's company was in this domain before it became a trend in the office market: open, collaborative, brick-and-beam, technology-driven, and a home to a creative, entrepreneurial culture. “We have been retrofitting properties and acquiring development sites in Liberty Village for 20 years,” Bob tells us.  Above, the Carpet Factory. The Liberty Village portfolio includes direct ownership or partnership interests and/or management responsibility for more than 800k SF of buildings and 235k SF of development land. “Let the tenants dictate what the area becomes, not us,” Bob's York business partner Michael Cruickshank told him once. “It's not just about brick-and-beam; it's about an area allowing companies to create environments that reflect their corporate cultures.” There's room for tremendous creativity, in terms of your own space, he says. “And Liberty Village is one of the most wired communities in all of North America.”  But it's Bob's outside interests that tell another story. There's development and growth, but there's also responsible development and growth. (With great land development comes great responsibility... that's a line from Spider Man.) Bob is director of Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, Environmental Defence and is president of Municipal Campaign Fairness Ontario. The mission statement of these organizations encourages a more rational, even-handed approach to the challenges of accommodating population growth in Ontario.  Snapped is Lake Simcoe. The mindless failure to distinguish between optimum growth and maximum growth, intelligently planned growth, and mindless sprawl threatens Southern Ontario's environmental heritage,” he says. At our event, Bob joins Konrad Group co-founder Geordie Konrad, Ashlar Urban Realty partner Michael Scace, IQ Office co-founder Kane Wilmott, Colliers executive managing director John Arnoldi, BrightLane president George Horhota, Hullmark Development VP Aly Damji, Google Canada facilities manager Andrea Janus, Allied Properties EVP Tom Burns, Gillam Group prez Marcus Gillam, and Oxford Properties VP John Peets, with expert moderation from Avison Young SVP Rodney McDonald. Sign up today! |
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AY Builds Up RosterEleven-year industry vet Ryan Cunningham has left CBRE to join Avison Young in Mississauga as a principal, continuing to specialize in industrial real estate and growing AY's platform in the sector. That includes acquisition, expansion, leasing, relocation, disposition, and development needs. While Ryan truly embraces the art of the deal and how each day brings new and different challenges, he says he finds balance in his family, the most important part of his life (a little more sedate than his other interests—boxing and extreme skiing). Ryan was one of the youngest people in CBRE brokerage history to achieve the Toronto West Top 10 award, and was given the Orlando Corporation's Broker of the Year Award in 2012. |
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