Like northern New York, eh!

Real Estate Weekly, June 13, 2001 by Natalie Keith

Calling Toronto "the New York of the north," officials from the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance urged participants at a Cushman & Wakefield panel to consider doing business in Canada's financial capital.

"Toronto is very big and it's very fast growing," said George Fierheller, chairman of the alliance and president of Four Halls Inc. "It's one of the best kept secrets in North America."

The panel was moderated by Stacy Wallach, senior operations executive of Cushman & Wakefield. Participants included Fierheller; Paul Morse, vice president and manager of Royal LePage Commercial Inc.; Paula Forys, of Cushman & Wakefield; Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, Inc.; Sharon Greenberger, vice president of economic development at the downtown alliance; Brenda Librecz, managing director of economic development for Toronto; and Prudence Lidbury, vice president of technology real estate of Archon Group.

The Toronto officials participated in the panel as part of a whirlwind tour of New York City, where they met with numerous real estate firms and other organizations.

The Greater Toronto Area, which includes Toronto and surrounding suburban areas, has five million people and is among the six largest city regions in the United States and Canada. The population is expected to increase to seven million in the next 20 years, Fierheller said.

"It's a bonanza for the real estate market and has been for some time," he said.

With about 150 million SF of office space -- 75 million SF in downtown Toronto and 75 million SF in suburban areas -- the Greater Toronto Area's commercial real estate market is very similar to New York's. The vacancy rates are between 5 and 6 percent throughout the market, but are expected to rise slightly over the next few months. Toronto officials are expecting economic recovery by the first or second quarter of 2002, Morse said.

"The office markets are very similar, although there's a one- to two-year lag behind the New York market," Morse said.

In an overview of the Manhattan real estate market, Forys said she expects a continued slowdown in activity during the second and third quarters this year. But she said the city would experience a "V-shaped" recovery meaning after the economic downturn reaches its lowest point, it will quickly turn upwards rather than remain at its nadir for any length of time.

"When we went into past recessions we were at high vacancy rates and high construction rates," she said.

Weisbrod and Greenberger outlined the alliance's role in transforming downtown from an area that was experiencing high vacancy rates in the early 1990s into an information and technology center. Among strategies were to offer tax incentive packages and provide incentives for turning old commercial buildings into residential buildings.

"We set out as a strategy to make downtown a livable environment and I don't think there's a better example than Toronto," Weisbrod said.