Brandon Donnelly

Daily insights for city builders, delivered every morning at 6 AM ET. I’m Brandon Donnelly — a Toronto-based real estate developer and founder of Globizen. I’ve been writing here since 2013.

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  • Interview with Brad Keast of Osmington

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    Given yesterday’s post about Times Square in New York, the timing is perfect to talk about the revitalization of Union Station here in Toronto, its new public spaces, and the programming that’s now happening in and around the station.

    Perhaps the most noticeable is something called Front Street Foods @ Union Summer, which is an outdoor food market set up along Front Street. It’s on this summer from July 6th to September 27th, 2015. 

    However, Front Street Foods is only one part – the food part – of a larger events and programming strategy known as Union Summer. I recently had a quick chat with Brad Keast of Osmington, who is involved in a lot of what’s happening right now at Union Station.

    I found it interesting to learn about how organic the process was. And I thought you all might find it interesting as well.

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    Tell us a little bit about you and your company’s involvement with Union Station. 

    I’ve been with Osmington for over 4 years now and Union Station is a major focus of my waking life. 

    The company won a public RFP with the City of Toronto in 2009 to be the City’s retail partner in the redevelopment. What this means is that while the City owns the building and is doing base building construction, we are overseeing all the retail, advertising, and special events and programming. We are finding all the tenants, doing a bit of overshell work and then turning it over for fit-up.  

    We think the real special part of the project comes in through the special events and programming. We really want to make the station a destination in itself and you’re starting to see that with some of the programming we’ve done this year, be it a contemporary art event like Villa Toronto or something more community-focused like Union Summer – the current animation of the area in front of the station.

    How did the idea for Union Summer come about? 

    This really was a collaborative internal effort. We started by thinking ‘hey, let’s put a bunch of tables and chairs on the new plaza in front of the station and see what happens.’ Then we added in the idea of food. We knew it had to be accessible but didn’t want traditional food trucks, rather something less mobile but still not permanent. 

    That’s when we reached out to Toronto Market Company and they started rounding up the vendors. Then we layered on entertainment – daily music be it live or DJs, as well as a movie night with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). We even have some kids programming on the weekends. Then we worked with the Farmers’ Market being displaced from Nathan Phillips Square due to Pan Am this year to have them here on Wednesdays.

    What was involved in making Union Summer a reality? What was the biggest surprise and/or hurdle that needed to be overcome? 

    There was a tremendous amount of coordination needed. First we weren’t sure when the construction was even going to be finished, all that was certain was it would be before Pan Am started. 

    Then the infrastructure required for the event itself was an exercise in creativity – power, water, and grey water disposal in particular. There was a lot of meetings with City officials for things like building permits, fire code, council approval to apply for a liquor permit, and health and food safety measures. Operationally things like loading in, coordinating with the installation of the Pan Am banners between the columns, interim furniture when our original order didn’t make it onto a ship in Antwerp, and then the first week was so busy that some vendors started losing staff because they were burnt out. 

    Like all things with this project we have to be mindful that this is an operating train station. In fact it’s the busiest building in the country with over 250,000 people per day passing through so we can’t impede those operations. We’ve done our best and have learned some lessons along the way and the reception has been overwhelming. 

    One of the best things about having that many entrepreneurs in close proximity is that some vendors have been pairing up to try experiments. Frozen custard-stuffed churro?

    Toronto is getting much better at designing and programming its public spaces. Given your experience with Union Summer, is there something the city could and should be doing to encourage more of these kinds of urban activations?

    Well, first of all, our contacts at the City, in particular Denise Gendron and Scott Barrett in Real Estate Services have been incredibly supportive of our efforts and we couldn’t have done it without them. If I could make one recommendation it would be to build in the supportive infrastructure for services. Of course that’s only beneficial if there is someone to take charge of the space and program it appropriately. It’s not a part time job.

    What’s next for Union Station?

    Right now the focus is on getting the first retailers open on GO’s new York Concourse. On the programming side we will host art for Nuit Blanche (October 3rd, 2015). That promises to be exciting. And then opening November 30th, 2015 is the Holiday Market. It was a huge success last year so we’re bringing it back for 3 weeks this time.

  • What should Mayor de Blasio do with Times Square?

    Under the Bloomberg administration, public space in New York went through a dramatic transformation. A transformation that I believe was for the better. Here’s a quick video showcasing the changes:

    [vimeo 83173191 w=500 h=281]

    But now Times Square is filled with topless women in body paint (as well as other characters) looking to get paid for a photo with them. Here’s what that looks like (photo source):

    And this is making some people very grouchy (including the current mayor, Bill de Blasio). Though to me it doesn’t feel all that different than the Naked Cowboy, who has long been a fixture in Times Square.

    In any event, Mayor de Blasio is now floating the idea of reversing one of Bloomberg’s biggest legacies and removing the pedestrian plazas in Times Square. Not surprisingly, lots of people, including myself, think this is a terrible idea. Here’s a snippet from NY Magazine:

    I understand that the mayor doesn’t care for the carnival atmosphere at Times Square — neither do I. But eradicating a pedestrian plaza because you don’t like who’s walking there is like blasting away a beach because you object to bikinis or paving a park because you hate squirrels. It represents such a profound misunderstanding of public space that it makes me question the mayor’s perception of what counts as progressive.

    Well said. 

    But what are your thoughts? Out of the following 3 options, which do you think the mayor should go with?

    1. Remove the pedestrian plazas.
    2. Find an alternate solution to curb “undesirable” behaviour in Times Square.
    3. Do nothing and maintain the status quo.

    I’d be curious to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

  • Fun Friday: ATC subscriber map

    When I was very young I went a Montessori school here in
    Toronto. If you’re not familiar with Montessori education, it’s basically a
    very open ended and independent form of learning. Students choose
    what they want to do.

    Because of this, many have argued that a Montessori
    education is actually great training to be an entrepreneur    . Instead of being
    told what to do, you as a student need to figure it out on your own. See the
    parallel? Both Google founders went to Montessori school.

    When I was there (< grade 4), my absolute favorite thing
    to do was draw maps. I remember them having these large scale maps of the world where you could
    physically remove each country so that you could then trace it and create your
    own maps. I spent a lot of time doing exactly that.

    To this day, I still really love maps. And I remember many
    of my friends in architecture school being the same way. So perhaps it comes
    with the territory.

    In any case, I recently started playing around with a product
    called cartoDB. And one of the things you can easily do with it is connect it
    to Mailchimp (the service that manages the ATC email newsletter) and anonymously
    map the location of each subscriber. I couldn’t resist giving it a try.

    Below is what that looks like. Not surprisingly, the highest
    concentrations of subscribers to this blog are in Canada and the US.

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    So here’s a zoomed in version:

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    I’ve been trying to branch out from talking about Toronto
    all the time. And that seems to be working somewhat. But I could still do a better
    job of creating more global content. I’ll try harder.

  • America really is building very few condominiums

    On my way back from Philadelphia
    this past weekend I wrote a post called, The
    Philadelphia (real estate) story    . It was about how opposite the market is
    in Philly compared to Toronto.

    After writing that post and
    because of a discussion in the comment section, I started thinking about condo
    vs. rental apartment development across the US. Because unlike cities such as
    Toronto and Vancouver, it struck me that – outside of maybe New York and Miami
    – most U.S. cities are really not building a lot of for sale condos. And if
    you’re from Toronto or Vancouver, I bet that feels odd to you.

    But what exactly is that number?

    As of the first quarter of 2015, condos as a percentage of all new
    multifamily (apartment) construction in the US was only 5.5%. That’s a tiny number and is down from
    over 50% before the Great Recession, which means most
    cities in the US really are building mostly rental. Last year the US built 264,000
    multifamily units across 11,000 buildings    .

    So why is that happening?

    There appears to be a number of
    factors, according to a
    recent article in the Wall Street Journal    .

    There’s a supply side
    constraint:

    Another obstacle cited by developers: construction loans. Matt
    Allen, chief
    operating officer of the Related Group, a developer based in Miami, said he can
    get a construction loan for roughly 75% of the cost of building an apartment
    complex. But lenders will cover only 50%, on average, of a condo complex’s cost
    because of the greater risk, he said.

    There’s a demand side
    constraint:

    As a result, the Federal Housing Administration, which
    backs mortgages made to low-wealth buyers, tightened its lending standards in a
    series of moves from 2008 to 2012. Under the new rules, in order for the FHA to
    insure mortgages in a given condo complex, at least half of the units must be
    owner-occupied and no more than half can be FHA-insured, among other
    requirements. For condo projects under development, at least 30% of units must
    be under contract for sale before the FHA will start backing mortgages there.
    Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened
    their standards as well.

    And there are macroeconomic
    factors:

    On the entry-level end, tepid job growth early in the
    recovery and the younger generation’s affinity for flexibility have fueled
    demand for rentals. Apartment rents are up nearly 16% since 2010, according to Reis Inc.

    Notwithstanding
    the above, could this be a post-recession policy pendulum that has swung
    too far in one direction?

  • Photos of the built environment

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    One of my absolute favorite things to do is travel to cities, explore, and take lots of pictures. When I’m in a new place, I can’t help but examine everything about the built environment. That’s the architect in me and it’ll never go away.

    When I was in undergrad I had a refurbished digital SLR camera that I used to use. But now I just use my iPhone. As the saying goes: the best camera is the one you have on you.

    Seeing how I was just in Philadelphia, I’ve been posting a lot of new city related photos to my Instagram. And since about 10x more people follow this blog than follow my Instagram, I’m going to plug it here: follow me on Instagram 🙂

  • The global pyramid of wealth

    Every year the London-based property consultancy Knight Frank publishes something called The Wealth Report. And it’s one of those reports that I could go through for hours. 

    It includes a ton of really fascinating stats that speak volumes about where in the world wealth is being created and how it’s moving around. And of course there are a lot of connections between wealth, real estate, and city building.

    Below are 3 diagrams that really stood out for me in the 2015 version. 

    The first diagram shows which cities have the most Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs). An UHNWI is defined as an individual with assets exceeding US$30 million, but excluding personal assets and property (such as one’s principal residence). Click here to see the full size image (I know the numbers are small).

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    Not surprisingly, London (4,364), Tokyo (3,575), Singapore (3,227), New York (3,008), and Hong Kong (2,690) are at the top of the list. But I was a little surprised – albeit happily surprised – to see Toronto (1,216) come in at #2 in North America, beating out Mexico City (1,116), Los Angeles (969), and Chicago (827). 

    The second diagram shows you how many square meters of luxury property (apartment) you can buy for US$1 million in a bunch of different cities around the world. 

    In Monaco (top end), that’ll buy you 17 square meters (183 square feet) and in Cape Town (bottom end), that’ll buy you 208 square meters (2,196 square feet).

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    The third and last diagram is what they call the global pyramid of wealth. It’s a pyramid of everyone in the world and then the number of millionaires, UHNWIs (see above), centa-millionaires, and billionaires. And if you do the math, the top of this pyramid comes nowhere close to 1% of the global population.

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    It’s fascinating (and exciting) to see where and how global wealth is concentrating. But it should also make you think about rising income inequality. I know it does for me.

  • Brian Curtner – 1951 – 2015

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    The world cannot find a cure for cancer soon enough. Earlier today Quadrangle Architects here in Toronto published the following news release. For those of you not from Toronto, Quadrangle is one of the most important architecture firms in the city.

    It is with great sadness that we share with you that Brian Curtner, our co-founder, colleague and friend, passed away from cancer on August 15, 2015 at the age of 64.

    As an architect, Brian has been widely recognized for exemplary designs that include the award-winning BMW showroom at the foot of the Don Valley Parkway, Corus Entertainment’s state-of-the-art headquarters on Toronto’s waterfront and 130 Bloor Street West in Yorkville – all innovative responses to complex urban challenges. Equally important to his projects was Brian’s unique ability to build long-term working relationships and turn them into friendships that spanned decades.

    Balancing entrepreneurship and commitments to family and friends, Brian was instrumental in creating a highly successful architecture practice, combining business acumen with design excellence, technical expertise and client service which continue to define Quadrangle today.

    Together with his family, we will honour Brian’s life and achievements with a memorial celebration in the near future. We will communicate more details as soon as arrangements have been finalized. In the meantime, Brian’s family welcomes donations to either the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care at Mount Sinai Hospital or Sunnybrook Hospital’s Odette Cancer Centre, in his memory.

    In the coming days, please visit our website for additional information. Details will also be available regarding a website being created in memory of Brian.

    For any inquiries please connect with Elle Fitzpatrick.

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    Top image from Quadrangle’s Instagram; bottom image from here.

  • The Philadelphia (real estate) story

    Real estate is a local business. And this weekend in Philadelphia really reminded me of that.

    Here’s what I mean.

    The real estate story in Toronto is condos. We’re buildings lots and lots of condos. When my friend from Chicago recently visited Toronto for the first time, he told me that it feels very similar to Chicago, except that we have modern glass condo towers going up everywhere and they don’t. That’s our story right now.

    Low-rise housing in Toronto is becoming increasingly unaffordable (the average price of a detached home is well north of $1M) and so high-rise condos are now what many people can afford. When young people in Toronto talk about buying their first place, that now usually means a condo.

    But that’s not the story in Philadelphia.

    In Philadelphia, you can buy a 1,600 square foot, 2 storey, 2 bedroom rowhouse in a respectable neighborhood for sub US$400,000. And in speaking with my friends in Philly this weekend, that’s what young people are buying.

    This doesn’t mean that Philadelphia isn’t building new high-rise condos and apartments. It is. Obviously nowhere near as many as Toronto. But it is building. Far more than when I lived there before the Great Recession.

    However, the condo market is typically more upmarket. The target market isn’t so much first time buyers and the mass market; it’s more people who want full floor apartments in Rittenhouse Square. (I’m exaggerating only slightly.)

    Philadelphia is also building more rental towers than condo towers. (Rental has only recently become fashionable again in Toronto.)

    I’m guessing that a lot of this has to do with the fact that Philadelphia draws in a lot of transient students and academics each year. In fact, the most noticeably changed area from when I lived in Philly was University City. That’s the area that houses the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.

    So there seems to be strong demand for new rental housing in the city. I’m told vacancies are very low. But when it comes time to buy, young people don’t look to condos like they do in Toronto. They are looking mostly to rowhouses.

    This is interesting to me because it’s the exact opposite of Toronto. In Toronto, low-rise is expensive and so lots more people are buying high-rise. In Philadelphia, high-rise is expensive and so people are buying low-rise.

    I guess that’s why they say real estate is a local business. What works in one city may not work in another.

  • A culture of beer gardens

    It’s great to be back in Philly. I have a real sense of nostalgia around this city.

    Last night my friends took me to a popup beer garden on South Street put on by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. Before the popup garden, it was just an abandoned lot.

    There seems to be a real culture of beer gardens in Philly, which is something I don’t think we have in Toronto. Why is that?

    Part of the reason, I think, is that there’s a greater spread between desirable and undesirable neighborhoods in Philly than in Toronto. And in the undesirable ones, urbanists have to work really hard to figure out ways to activate them.

    So really these popup beer gardens are a lean urbanist intervention. It’s a way to draw people to an area and create awareness. And I’m told that often these popup gardens end up becoming development sites.

    Because of this, these popup gardens are sometimes controversial within communities. They’re seen as a catalyst and precursor to gentrification. But that’s a whole other debate.

    What I find interesting is this grassroots approach to city building. Great spaces don’t have to be expensive. Sometimes seating, lighting, and beer are all you need to bring people together.

  • 10 reasons to visit Philadelphia right now

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    Today’s ATC post – which happens to be a guest post – is coming to you live from on board the UP Express train that runs from Union Station in downtown Toronto to Pearson Airport. (Everywhere should have free wifi.)

    I’m on my way to Philadelphia and I’ve been wanting to try this train since it opened earlier this summer. It feels great to finally ride it. It’s everything I could have hoped for. It even has that new car smell 🙂

    Last month I wrote a post called, 10 reasons to visit Toronto right now. It was in honor of my good friend Alex Feldman’s visit. Well now it’s my turn to visit Philadelphia and he has decided to return the favor and do a Philly version of that same post. 

    Alex is to Philadelphia what I am to Toronto. He grew up in Philly. He was educated in Philly (we went to Penn together). And he’s super passionate about the future of Philly. And I think that’s how everyone should be about their city.

    So I hope you enjoy his list of 10 reasons to visit Philadelphia right now. It’s basically my to-do list for this weekend.

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    10. World Heritage City: Philadelphia is on track to become the first World Heritage City in the United States. This UNESCO designation will underscore the city’s historic importance as the birthplace of American Democracy as well as the historic urban fabric which gives the city it’s walkable, urbane character.

    9. Shopping: Philadelphia has come a long way as a shopping destination. Conde Nast Traveler recently ranked the city as number 2 out of the best shopping destinations in the world. 3rd Street in Old City has become a hotbed for independent boutiques while Rittenhouse Square has attracted new chains such as Uniqlo, Theory, and Vince. More is on the way with a complete re-make of the Gallery shopping mall slated to start soon and the new East Market complex under construction. 

    8. The Pope is Coming:  In case you haven’t heard, Pope Francis will make his first visit to the United States – with a 3 day visit to Philadelphia in late September. The visit will coincide with the World Meeting of Families gathering. A crazy number of visitors (2 million?) are expected to descend on the city – causing Philadelphians to panic, complain, and attempt to rent their houses for ridiculous amounts of money. But this important visit will help raise the profile of the city on the international stage.

    7. Building Boom: There is probably more development happening in Philadelphia right now then any other time in recent history. The skyline is growing with additions by Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli , and Kohn Pedersen Fox. New apartment buildings, condos, and rowhouses are under construction across the city (rental vacancy rates are less than 2%). In addition the Barnes Foundation and the new Singh Center for Nanotechnology mark impressive additions to the city’s architectural landscape.

    6. Public Spaces: Philly’s public realm has seen massive investment over the last several years. A complete remake of the landscape outside of City Hall has become the new Dilworth Park. The designers of NYC’s highline have added two public spaces to the city (Race Street Pier and the new Central Green in the Navy Yard). And Schulkill Banks recently added a new boardwalk which the New York Times raved about when they ranked Philly as the number 3 city to visit in 2015. More is on the way with the first phase of the Reading Viaduct Rail Park expected to start soon.

    5. Waterfront: Philadelphia’s Delaware River waterfront has long been cut off from the city by interstate 95. Things have started to change recently, with new trails and pier parks recently added to the working waterfront. Even Penn’s Landing, the city’s much maligned waterfront attraction is seeing improvements – including the tremendously popular Spruce Street Harbor Park – a pop-up park featuring floating beer barges, shipping container food stands, and tons of hammocks.

    4. Food: Philly is one of the best food cities in the United States. So much is happening right now in the city’s dining scene, it’s hard to keep track of the latest restaurant openings. Neighborhoods such as Fishtown and East Passyunk have emerged as hot dining districts with BYOB chef driven restaurants. More can be gleaned from the Washington Post which recently summarized the dining scene better than I can.

    3. Pop-up Gardens: One of the best reasons to visit Philly in the summer is the opening of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Pop-Up gardens. The wildly popular beer gardens, began several years ago as an initiative to remake underused or vacant lots into useful public spaces. This summer, 2 gardens – one on 15th and South and one at 9th and Wharton have been transformed into vibrant spaces for eating, drinking, and hanging out.

    2. Le Bok Fin: Speaking of temporary uses, the most recent addition to Philly’s pop-up (or iterative placemaking) scene is a rooftop bar called Le Bok Fin. Situated on the 8th floor of an old vocational high school in South Philly (and named after the school’s restaurant – which in turn is a play on one of Philly’s most famous French restaurants). This is the first iteration of development at what is planned to become an amazing new center for creatives inside the old school – being led by Lindsey Scannapieco and her team at Scout LTD. Check out Le Bok Fin for incredible views of the city skyline (especially at sunset).

    1. Bike Share: While a little late to the party, Philly recently launched it’s own bike share program – which is proving to be a huge success. Dubbed Indego, the new bike share is easy to use, has 60 stations, more than 600 bikes and is becoming one of the best ways to hop around town. Check one out and go explore Philly!

    Image: Alex Feldman