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Yorkdale Shopping Centre landed nine first-to-market luxury retailers this year. We asked Yorkdale GM Anthony Casalanguida how he lured them across the border. (If Halloween is any indication, Americans will pretty much do anything for candy.)  "I am giving you the ingredients of the secret sauce," Anthony jokes. He and his team have made numerous trips to New York City to meet with the marketing teams of leading retail brands like John Varvatos, AllSaints, David Yurman, Mulberry, all using Yorkdale as their entry point into Canada. Many have been selling their brands here already. "Retailers are competing globally now," he says. "A lot of the growth we are experiencing in the retail industry is because Americans are finally realizing that I am not going to go to Cleveland anymore, or expand to Buffalo, I am going to go to Toronto, because it has a population base bigger than Chicago."  Europeans are better understanding the Canadian shopper as well, and Canadian brands like Holt Renfrew and Harry Rosen remain anchors on the luxe retail front at Yorkdale. Next to the John Varvatos store is its "sister" brand, as Anthony terms it, AllSaints (which we snapped here), with a creative storefront featuring 430 sewing machines. Varvatos got curious after AllSaints committed. In the case of Varvatos, there were regular trips to New York to educate Varvatos marketing people on the Canadian market. "Do they understand what Boxing Week is? Do they understand that Canadians have a different psyche when it comes to department stores than Americans do? Do they understand the importance of hockey in this market?" he says. Then John Varvatos travelled to Yorkdale to get a feel for the vibe of the shopping centre.  For Anthony, who's been in the property management business for 20 years, six of those as GM at Yorkdale, one of the cherries on the cake came recently when InStyle magazine called: "They said we want to learn about you because every single retailer is talking about this thing called Yorkdale. Annual traffic numbers there are 21 million, with a 200k SF Nordstrom's coming 2016. "Someone once said to me, 'You are managing the best asset in the country, and if you don't say you're doing fabulous when people ask how things are going, then you are in the wrong business,'" Anthony says. |
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Work Starts on New Globe and Mail Centre Politicians and industry leaders were out in what will soon be the former parking lot of the Toronto Sun building at 351 King St E for a groundbreaking on First Gulf's 500k SF, 17-storey tower. Come 2016, it will house the new Globe and Mail offices (taking 130k SF). Snapped at the podium is Globe publisher Phillip Crawley, alongside First Gulf CEO David Gerofsky and Toronto Councillor Pam McConnell.  This area will once again become a "hub of economic and urban activity in the heart of Toronto," David announced. "The LEED Gold tower will become a symbol of excellence, innovation and sustainability, with great outdoor amenity spaces, restaurants and cafes." It's the final phase of a two-city block redevelopment of 1M SF, which will add over 5,000 jobs to the revitalized King East office district, he adds. The Globe and Mail's new home will include a large video-editing suite. |
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NYC Conference Attracts Canadian StarsThe maple leaf flew high in Manhattan yesterday, where we snapped Canada Pension Plan Investment Board head of real estate investment (Americas) Peter Ballon and Oxford Properties Group SVP of investments Andrew Trickett, in town to speak at a New York University capital markets conference. Oxford has a position in NYC's mega Hudson Yards development (where rezoning will allow up to 26M SF of new office, 20,000 units of housing, 2M SF of retail, and 3M SF of hotel). The project's focus on urbanization and highly efficient office space are two themes Oxford zeroes in on in its projects, like the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Andrew says. (It had also looked at Hines' CityCenterDC project in Washington, DC; it invested near there, but not in the project itself.) Peter says CPPI is investing $3B to $4B in real estate annually across 14 countries. (What kind of frequent flyer miles does that get you?) |
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Happy Halloween!The Curse of the Bambino seems to have taken the last decade off. May all your Halloween hexes be strong and permanent. |
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