Under-Construction Office High Rise in Downtown Toronto Set to Thrive

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

Toronto—A large leasing deal was recently completed at Brookfield’s Bay Adelaide Center in downtown Toronto. According to a statement released by the company, the last company to announce its commitment to the in-development office project is Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, a full-service law firm. BLG will be occupying 165,000 square feet of office space in the Bay Adelaide Center’s East tower.

The building, on which development is progressing with a 2015 deadline, was given a major boost with an announcement made by Deloitte in June 2012 regarding the lease of 420,000 square feet of space at the new facility. With an anchor tenant in place, and a total of 43 percent of its space already leased out, the East tower of the Bay Adelaide Center carried on with development. Now, the addition of another major name to its already impressive tenant roster taking its occupancy rate to 60 percent seems to secure the building’s prosperity even as it stands two years away from completion.

Bay Adelaide East will be a 44-level, 980,000-square foot, Class A office high-rise offering tenants an eco-friendly, LEED Platinum-certified work environment. The best-in-class facility, along with Bay Adelaide West, will constitute one of the prime spots for office space in Toronto’s financial district. Bay Adelaide West is a 51-story, 1.2-million square foot office tower that was completed by Brookfield in 2009, in the immediate vicinity of the site set to host Bay Adelaide East. The western tower currently has an occupancy rate of around 95 percent.

“Bay Adelaide Centre has become the newest premier professional precinct in downtown Toronto,” Brookfield Office Properties’ President and CEO Jan Sucharda said. Furthermore, the project does not plan on stopping with the completion of the East Tower, as Bay Adelaide North is zoned for an additional 500,000 square feet of commercial real estate development.