Report highlights four Toronto commercial growth hotspots

DailyCommercailNews.com and News.BuzzBuzzHome.com
Nov. 13, 2017

A new report by Avison Young has identified four potential commercial growth areas in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that will benefit from transit-oriented development investments.

The report, issued Nov. 7 and titled Transit Nodes of Tomorrow: Development Opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area, said the East Harbour, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the Pearson Transit Centre and the Hurontario Light-Rail Transit corridor will profit from a convergence of factors.

Included among the factors identified that should spur commercial development, the GTA is projected to be Ontario's fastest-growing region over the next 25 years.

Its population is expected to increase by 42.3 per cent to reach 9.6 million by 2041, the provincial Ministry of Infrastructure has pledged to spend $160 billion over 12 years starting in 2014, with half going to transit and developers are making "significant investments in all types of residential and commercial real estate in locations connected with the expansion of public infrastructure that will be required to accommodate future population growth."

At each of the four growth areas there is a confluence of residential and commercial demand, creating significant opportunities for development and investment, said Avison Young.

"With so much planned development on the drawing board and funding in place, this is a time of opportunity for forward-looking commercial property owners and occupiers," said Bill Argeropoulos, principal and practice leader, research (Canada) for Avison Young.

"The GTA has experienced extraordinary commercial and residential growth in recent years, and that trend looks set to continue and intensify in the coming decades. The recent news that Toronto is vying for selection as the location of Amazon's proposed $5-billion second headquarters in North America, and Google sister company Sidewalk Labs' plan to build a high-tech neighbourhood called Sidewalk Toronto on the city's waterfront, only serve to emphasize the importance of making investments in the city's future to further increase its appeal to major global corporations."