Toronto is the largest city in Canada and its population is growing rapidly. As a result, demand for more housing and office space has led to a staggering amount of new development. Over the last 10 years alone, the city added 27 million square feet (2.5 million sq m) of office space. But developing in the city is not easy, and panelists shared how they are dealing with the challenges of building in Toronto at the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting.
June 28, 2021 Maryam Farag
Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, visited Canada’s Sugar Beach; the transformed Waterfront Toronto park that was once a surface parking lot in a former industrial area.
Featuring a plaza, a tree-lined promenade and views of large freighters docking in the slip to deliver sugar to the neighbouring Redpath factory, the accessible urban beach is one of the many Waterfront Toronto revitalization projects to embody Canada’s infrastructure ambitions: to build public infrastructure that provides economic, social and environmental benefits for people across the country.
“Waterfront Toronto’s work to build a vibrant waterfront for everyone is creating jobs and economic opportunity, providing new access to green spaces and the water, and is building a more inclusive community,” said McKenna. “We are fortunate to have talented new federal board appointees that will play a critical role in delivering on t
Canada s condo amenity wars
Competition for affluent condo buyers has developers piling on frills car fleets, meditation walls and even perks that assuage the social conscience
Vancouver House (Courtesy of Ema Peter/Westbank)
The marketing material for Vancouver House listed 20 reasons to buy a home inside the residential skyscraper overlooking False Creek. Among them: use of a fleet of BMWs; access to a 25-m heated rooftop pool configured so it’s sheltered from the wind yet lets in sunshine; and a 24-hour concierge trained to the same standard as those at the five-star Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel.
But when Allen Oram joined the project as part of the Westbank Development sales team in 2014 before the building broke ground he was moved to buy a unit for himself, in part because of a more unique incentive located halfway around the world. For each of the units sold at the 370-residence Vancouver House, another home would be constructed in Cambodia for poverty-stricken families li