This past weekend, the Brazilian-Japanese coffee house, The Coffee, soft-opened at the base of Junction House (right at the corner of Dundas St W and Watkinson Ave). And it was busy! I've been eagerly awaiting this opening since it was first announced last year.

But not for any direct economic reasons — unless, of course, it reminds you that you should buy a new home at Junction House! As I mentioned before, we (the developers) no longer own this retail space. This is not our tenant.

I'm mostly excited as a proud resident of the Junction, and because I think it's a perfect fit for the building and the neighourhood. So, I would encourage you to check it out at 2720 Dundas St W. Starting today, any coffee meetings I take in the Junction will be held here.

Last week in Paris, we went to check out the above café called The Coffee. It was our first time. The brand is a Brazilian coffee chain founded in 2017 by three brothers who wanted to combine Japanese minimalism with the best of Brazilian coffee. Brazil, by the way, is the world's largest producer of coffee.

Since then, they've gone on to open nearly 300 stores around the world — from Rio de Janeiro to Paris and Seoul to Sydney. Earlier this year, they opened their first locations in Toronto: on King Street West, in the Financial District, and in Yorkville. And today, I'm excited to share that their next location will be at the base of Junction House.

This feels like a perfect fit for the area and the building. One of the things that we tried to do with the design of the project was blend Canadian minimalism with the rich history of the Junction. So I'm happy to see this brand land here, especially since we (the developer) no longer own the retail component and weren't involved in the leasing. Kudos to Lee Chow Group (the owner) and the JLL Retail Group.

It’s exciting to see a global brand like The Coffee choose the Junction. They clearly know what's up. I'm now looking forward to becoming a loyal customer.

If you'd like to follow them on Instagram, here's their Canadian account.

I am currently sitting in CDG and running on somewhere between 3-4 hours of sleep. We spent the entire day in Paris on a layover and are now waiting to board for Tokyo. So today's post is going to be two quick announcements related to Junction House. One, we just received the final architectural photos from Double Space Photography, and they turned out great. If you'd like to take a look, most of them can be found here. And two, we just listed suite 607. It's a spacious two-storey and two-bedroom suite, and one of the best in the building. Over the last few months, we've been seeing strong demand from end users (as opposed to investors) and I'm sure this one will go that way as well. For much of the last cycle, it was frankly easier and more profitable to just target investors. But I would argue that the opposite is true today. And that's a positive thing for the market.

Cover photo: Double Space Photography