See who attended here.
Photos of the event can be found here.

Presentations: Canary Wharf – John Pagano
East Harbour – David Gerofsky

On October 5, 2017, ULI Toronto, along with First Gulf Corporation, held a panel discussion on the global-scale regeneration, employment-based projects in Canary Wharf in London and the Hudson Yards in New York. Panelists Dean Shapiro (Senior Vice President, Investments, US Region, Oxford Properties Group, Hudson Yards), John Pagano (former Managing Director, Canary Wharf Group), and David Gerofsky (President & CEO, First Gulf Corporation) discussed how these two catalysts for urban redevelopment provide lessons for Toronto as it embarks on its planning for a secondary commercial business district at the proposed East Harbour development.

During a conversation moderated by the accomplished Janet Ecker (President & CEO, Toronto Financial Services Alliance), panelists spoke of the histories of each of the three sites, from the old dockyards in London to the still operational rail yards in New York, to the former feedlot and soap factory in Toronto. All three regeneration projects maintained — or aim to maintain in the case of East Harbour in Toronto — the employment legacies of the sites to accommodate the unprecedented demand for high quality office and employment space.

First Gulf’s Gerofsky noted that one key difference between the projects in London and New York from the proposed development in Toronto is that plans for mass transit to the East Harbour site were in place before the development of the actual scheme. As the future home of the city’s next transit hub outside of the traditional financial district, the proposed East Harbour development is Toronto’s Canary Wharf and expected to be anchored by stops for the proposed SmartTrack/GO Regional Express Rail lines and the TTC’s Downtown Relief Line.

In contrast, Canary Wharf Group’s Pagano spoke of the London project as the answer to the unprecedented growth in demand for office space in the city after the deregulation of banking in the early 1980s. The development of the old dockyards was a catalyst for the development of the Jubilee Underground line to connect east London to the city’s traditional financial centre. Oxford Properties’ Shapiro drew similarities between Canary Wharf and the Hudson Yards development, as the site’s accessibility also plays a central role in the redevelopment scheme. The planning of the 28-acre site began prior to the extension of the 7 line subway, the extension of the High Line around the site, and the announcement of the Gateway Program, which is the expansion and renovation of the Northeast Corridor rail line between Newark and New York City.

Going forward, both Shapiro and Pagano expressed the importance of diversifying the type of stock being built and the targeted tenants for both developments. Pagano noted that in today’s post-Brexit economic climate, the Canary Wharf Group has adapted its business strategy to focus on looking into the needs of the creative and technology industries, placing more of an emphasis on building residential units to master plan a mixed-use community. Shapiro spoke to the initial expectations for Hudson Yards, where it was expected that the residential components of the development would be the “money-maker” and key tenants for the less successful office stock would be banks. He was surprised, however, when the office stock drove profits, and the anchor tenants were companies like Coach and L’Oréal.

The event was attended by a number of distinguished members of Toronto’s city building community, including former mayor Barbara Hall and former chief city planner Paul Bedford. It was held at the Unilever site, the location of the proposed East Harbour development, and where the Design Exchange was hosting EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology.

Richard Joy (Executive Director of ULI Toronto) celebrated a significant birthday on the day of the event, and ULI staff presented him with a personalized piece of artwork by local graffiti artist Uber 5000.

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