Volume 15 Spring 2003
Award-Winning Development King West Central named Office Project of the Year
K
ing West Central claimed the prestigious Office Project of the Year Award for 2002 at the annual National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) Real Estate Excellence Awards gala event held in February of this year. The project involved the redevelopment of nine heritage buildings comprising the bulk of two city blocks immediately to the west of King and Spadina. It was launched in the latter part of 1998, involved four separate acquisitions, the renovation and retrofitting of more than 625,000 square feet of brick-and-beam space, the leasing of nearly 600,000 square feet of that space, and the consequent revitalization of an entire inner-city neighbourhood. The people who helped create King West Central often referred to themselves as The Downtown West Wonder-Team. My colleagues and I at Allied Properties were certainly part of that team. We were fortunate to have superb equity partners, most notably Gerry Connor and Gord Cunningham of Cumberland Asset Management, who stood with us shoulder-to-shoulder from inception through to completion. We were also fortunate to have a superb general contractor in Andrew Clarke of Marketblock Construction, who brought not only construction capability to the effort, but a genuine understanding of real estate.
On the leasing side, we had not one, but two listing agents: CB Richard Ellis and J.J. Barnicke. The CB Richard Ellis team was spearheaded by Jeff Friedman and Chris Vanexan, with strong support from Mark Renzoni and John O’Toole. The J.J. Barnicke team was spearheaded by Tom Burns and Stephen Alikakos with strong support from Ted Bloom, Jim Higgs and Tom McLeod. We also had the support of numerous selling agents. Perhaps the most important members of The Downtown West WonderTeam were the more than 30 business tenants, each of whom shared the vision of what King West Central could become, had the courage to make a significant commitment and, in doing so, made a distinct contribution to the creation of one of the BOIGON PETROFF most vibrant and proSHEPHERD ARCHITECTS ductive neighbourDR. KRISTIN HEENEY hoods in downtown ACTON LEATHER Toronto. To all the members INCOMING! of The Downtown SPACE FOR RANT West Wonder-Team, PATIO CENTRAL I say, Thank You and Congratulations!
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– Michael R. Emory, President & CEO, Allied Properties