Behind the Revamp: 545 King Street

Also joining us for our Creative Office Summit is Ashlar Urban’s Mike Scace. His firm was involved with the newly retrofitted 545 King St W (below). The building was being used as office/live/work, with the owner running a light manufacturing business in the semi-below grade space. “The building required significant capital investment but was a great character builder,” he says. (That's the kind of player Bill Belichik wants for the Patriots.) Ashlar worked with Hullmark to buy the building and create a lease-up strategy for both office and retail.

The retrofit included new state-of-the-art building systems, a newly converted over-sized elevator, and double-height lobby. (There's never been a better time to be a giant.) Then they did a deal with Brightlane, which is leasing all the office space in the building, along with Libretto Pizza and Porchetta & Co for the retail. For a preview of Libretto, you can check out its space in Ossington.

Ashlar Urban also sold 220 King St W (image) to Kingsett Capital and assisted in the lease-up strategy for the office and retail. RealNet expanded within the building, while Bitmaker Labs (a design and software training company) leased the two vacant office floors. There were also upgrades to the building's common areas. The work completed at 545 King W and 220 King W also helped to improve Toronto’s King West, by securing office and retail tenants that will enhance the area, Mike says.