I love seeing these kind of small and creative infill projects.

In this case, this, is a conversion of an old TV and radio repair shop into a new 4,800 square foot gallery and workspace (there also looks to be a single residential suite based on the photos). These are the kinds of projects that can really make and/or transform an area. However, they are often few and far between.

Here's something that I think about a lot:

In Toronto’s red hot market, it wasn’t easy finding a building large enough to do all of these things; that Mr. Low-Beer had been out of the city for two decades only added to the shock: “I wasn’t fully cognizant of the fact that every square inch was going to be priced out as a condo; I thought you could get an old garage or some place on a highway that was undesirable.”

Having cheap and undesirable spaces in a city can be a huge benefit, because they lower the barriers to entry and allow for new ideas. And at the end of the day, it is new ideas that usually make cities so exciting. Jane Jacobs was on to someting here.

But over the last real estate cycle, this has been a challenge because of how frenetic the market has been. It has been a challenge for people wanting to convert TV repair shops into new creative spaces, and it has even been a challenge for new/smaller developers wanting to, yes, build things like condos.

However, all of this started changing about a year and a half ago. And I would argue that right now is the best time in the last 15 years to be a new entrant. Two years ago, it was hard to buy development sites, and it was mostly impossible to negotiate favorable deal terms (such as structure).

This current reset has changed that. And it is creating opportunities for those who can be creative.