Commentary – The Major Reasons Why You Should Invest in the Booming Downtown East
When we look at new areas to for clients to invest in, we’re constantly on the look out for proposals that will make neighbourhoods better and will ultimately escalate prices and rental rates.
The area that I’m most excited about right now is Downtown East, and more specifically the stretch from Queen Street/King Street from Yonge to just east of the DVP. The proposed changes for this area have the potential to transform this stretch to become one of the most important areas of Toronto, on par with Yonge Street.
The image below highlights the area of interest.
What Makes a Great Neighbourhood?
Before I go on to talk about why I think this area is getting ready to boom, it is important to understand what makes successful neighbourhoods in a Downtown Core:
- Proximity to high quality jobs
- Proximity to education
- Proximity to rapid transit
- Proximity to world class public spaces
- Proximity to retail including restaurants, cafes etc.
These are the major things that make a downtown tick and having quick access to these key elements help neighbourhoods grow in demand.
With that in mind, this pocket of Downtown Toronto has numerous proposals that will have a completely transformative impact, and as a condo investor this is an area I would pay close attention over the coming years.
This area of Toronto a bargain compared to other areas
Today, the Eastern pocket of Toronto is one of the most affordable stretches in Toronto, which makes this area such a great spot to park your money. While Yonge Street condo projects are hitting $800-$1200 per square foot, you can get into high quality condominium in Downtown East for around $600 per square foot. This represents a 20% – 50% discount compared to condominium projects along Yonge Street.
The Eastern corridor represents huge upside and below are the key areas of development that will turn this stretch of Downtown East into tomorrow most sought after areas.
1. The brand new Downtown Relief Subway Line
The new Subway line is the big transformative change that will have an enormous impact on Downtown East. The City of Toronto are under no illusions that new transit is required in Toronto and there has been a lot of movement on the Downtown Relief Line this year. We are now entering a very important stage for the future of the new Subway Line but many believe that it is a matter of when, not if the Subway line will be built.
Once it was determined that a new subway line was required, there were a few major milestones that were met:
First – the City had to determine the high priority areas between West (of Yonge), East (of Yonge) and North (of Bloor) areas of Toronto.
It was determined pretty early that the Eastern section would be the primary area of focus.
Downton Rapid Transit Expansion Study (DRTES) concluded that the first phase of the Relief Line, between downtown and the Bloor-Danforth Subway (Line 2) east of the Don River, would provide the greatest and most immediate benefit to relieving overcrowding on the Yonge Subway line. The study also recommended future extensions of the Relief Line to the north and west. Source.
Second – once the they had narrowed down the area to the East, the second phase was determining which alignment would be preferred. The City presented 6 options within the East Corridor, which included options along Queen Street or Richmond Street to West of the DVP, and Queen Street, the GO Corridor or Eastern Avenue to the East of DVP.
Based on a careful selection process, the route along Queen Street East and King Street East was selected as the prefered route for the new subway line, and in October 2016, the Relief Line website revealed the below image to highlight how the Relief Line fits in with the other Subway lines.
Third – once the line was selected, the next step was determining where the stops would be along the line new line. Again, after narrowing down the selection they announced 8 stops along the new line (including the connection of three existing stations along the Yonge and Bloor lines).
Finally – in June, the Province announced $150 million funding for the relief line, which bought the project closer to reality. The funding will be used toward design work and bringing the project to life. It is estimated that the downtown relief timeline is around 12 years.
The new subway line in Toronto will have an enormous impact on the neighbourhoods surrounding it. Similar to the Eglinton Cross Town line, we expect a flurry of activity and rapidly increasing prices in areas surrounding the key subway stations along the new Relief Line.
2. The brand new Financial District 2.0 at the Unilever Site
The second major development is the push to develop a secondary Financial District that has often been referred to as Toronto’s Canary Wharf. Canary Wharf became a major business district in London, England when they created a master planned development to convert defunct lands in the late 80’s into a major business centre with 16 million sq.ft of office space.
The Unilever site shares a lot of similarities with Canary Wharf. It is defunct lands, but highly accessible to the downtown core. The current proposal will turn it into a business and transit hub, second only to Union Station and Bay & Adelaide.
The development will include 12 million sq.ft. of new offices, residential and retail and be home to over 50,000 – 70,000 new jobs and residents and the transit sytem at this location will become a multi-modal hub that will connect major regional and local transit lines, very similar to how Union Station connects various lines from TTC, to GO, to Via.
This new financial district will become the anchor for the East End and is a major reason for the projected growth along this area.
3. Emerging communities such as Canary District, Port Lands and East Bayfront
The first two points bring transit and jobs to the East End, but we are also seeing well thought out and designed new communities that are bringing new levels of engagement to areas in the East End. The Canary District was developed as part of the Pan Am Games Village to become a true work-live-play neighbourhood, and new retail and residential components have begun completion as the neighbourhood gets developed.
The brand new Corktown Commons 18 acre park is another major public space, along with the waterfront promenade along the East Bayfront community that continues to add vibrance to the street scape along the emerging East End.
What Condos should you invest in Toronto’s Downtown East?
There is going to be a flurry of activity with new condominiums over the next few years. Today, the platinum launch of Home Condominiums represents an incredible opportunity to purchase in the emerging East End just steps from the proposed Sumach station on the brand new Downtown Relief Line.
You can register for Platinum VIP access to Home Condos by clicking on the link below:
Get Platinum Access to Home Condos
With the new proposals, we fully believe that the future of East Toronto is very very bright.
