Chronicle - Spring 2005 by Allied Properties REIT

Volume 22 Spring 2005 Liberty Village • King West • King West Central • Entertainment District • St. Lawrence Market Area • Queen Richmond East

2 Red Bull Climbs into King West

3 The Unconventional Downtown Partners

Totum Training Tips

EVOLUTION:

Hammam Spa Opening

PLUS: Dining Al Fresco – Downtown & Allied’s New Montreal Buildings

CONTACT Photo Fest makes King West Central its focus destination

Photo: © James Mollison, courtesy Chris Boot

King West Central

Red Bull ties its brand to fringe sports using spokespeople like champion ice climber Will Gadd.

Red Bull Office Opens in King West Central Energy Drink’s new headquarters in keeping with brand’s “anti-brand” status

ost people outside of the ice-climbing world may not have heard of Will Gadd, and anyone that doesn’t follow aerial acrobatics likely won’t have seen the Flying Bulls, but most of us have heard mention of Red Bull. The energy drink manufacturer’s spokespeople and sponsorship programs deliberately border on the fringe of pop culture as a means of positioning its brand, and the company’s location strategy draws on the same philosophy opening its new Toronto offices in February on the downtown fringe at King West Central.

Red Bull’s funky King West offices include a DJ booth and a mural by famed graffiti artist Qwest.

Looking for Downtown Presence “We felt that this area matched up with the Red Bull personality,” says Jim Bailey, the energy drink’s Canadian Vice President of Marketing, explaining that packaged food companies tend to locate near the airport in the GTA. Red Bull wanted something a little different for its Toronto diggs. With existing space in Vancouver, the 5,300 square feet it will occupy at 445 King Street West is its second office in Canada. A Popular Energy Drink Despite its widespread availability in gas stations, variety stores and Wal-Marts, this premium energy drink, which retails for $2.99 a can, is also a popular energy drink at Toronto hot spots such as the Drake Hotel and the Ultra Supper Club. Its Canadian debut has been some time in the making. With one billion cans consumed each year, the drink has been well established in the world marketplace since 1987 and is distributed in more than 120 countries. Here, it’s approved by Health Canada as a Natural Health Product. Coffee in a Can Red Bull’s small blue and silver can contains 80 milligrams of caffeine – the same amount of caffeine you’ll find in

one cup of filtered coffee. The caffeine in Red Bull acts with other ingredients to vitalize “the body and the mind”.

$3-billion Industry Leader Red Bull’s distinctive taste and cutting-edge marketing (it was one of the first firms to employ viral marketing techniques, using young opinion leaders to host parties where the drink was served) have helped propel it to the top of the health and energy drinks market which, according to the U.K. Guardian, is doubling in size every year (it reached $3 billion in 2003). The brand is an extension of 60-year-old owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s personality, says Bailey. Back in 1987, when the former toothpaste executive brought Red Bull to the Austrian market, he followed it up with his interests in fringe sports such as windsurfing, hang gliding, stunt aviation and most recently Formula One, with the $120 million purchase of the Jaguar racing team. www.redbull.com

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

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Downtown Partners Takes the Unconventional Road to Creativity King West Central ad firm with Bud Light client searches beyond the norm

A Team of Senior Execs Ranked the top Canadian agency in the world in 2003 and 2004 by the Gunn Reports, Downtown Partners is a creative shop with no hierarchy, only a small group of senior people who are actively involved in their clients’ business. Established in December 2001, the agency operates under the guiding principle of Unconventional Action. “It’s about getting to an idea that hasn’t been done before – and getting to it in a new way,” says president and CEO Tony Altilia. “It’s not unconventional for the sake of being different, but for the sake of getting noticed because if you don’t get noticed, you’re wasting your client’s money.”

The bulk of Downtown Partners’ staff is senior, a fact that Altilia says helps his teams get to solutions quickly. It’s a speed-to-action process that has seen a remarkable volume of work come out of the agency’s King West offices. And location has also played its part in helping expedite projects to completion.

Less Conventional Space “A lot of the suppliers we deal with, the recording studios, editors and film companies are down here, so we have easy access to them,” says Altilia, explaining that the firm took space in the neighbourhood two years ago

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hen Bud Light wanted an advertising campaign, Downtown Partners gave it an Institute. Within that concept, they found a hit album, a building wrap, a national contest, greeting cards and some poetry. Of course, the client also received a slew of award-winning, Super-Bowl-running television advertising spots. In fact, its 2004 “Good Dog”, a Bud Light spot produced for Anheuser-Busch in the U.S., which ran during the Super Bowl, was ranked number one in the U.S. And that success came fast on the heels of the firm’s 2003 triumph when three of its spots for Bud Light aired on U.S. networks during that year’s Super Bowl – a feat no other Canadian agency can claim. With offices in Toronto at 468 King Street West and in Chicago, the agency’s client roster includes Labatt Breweries of Canada, Anheuser-Busch Inc, Toronto Argonauts, QTG (Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade), Bridgestone Firestone, Sport Chek and St. Michael’s Majors.

moving from Yonge and Bloor to this “less conventional” space. “It was in keeping with unconventional action, we felt we should really be consistent with that philosophy,” he says of the decision to steer clear of locating in high-rise office towers. It’s a philosophy that seems to have prompted growth. The firm’s current premises accommodated 18 employees, but now staffed at 35, Downtown Partners has had to take up residence on the 6th floor of 468, a move that will take place over the summer. www.downtownpartners.com

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Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

Queen Richmond East

SUMMER IN THE CITY DINING OUT... OUTSIDE Bakerberry’s Cafe Juicebar 469 King Street West (416) 595-5155 Serving the breakfast and lunch crowd, Bakerberry’s patio seats about 18 and gets busy from noon to 2:00. While most of its menu is veg fare (baked goods and cold salads), Wednesday and Thursdays they bring out the BBQ and cook up steaks, sausages, chicken and other meaty things. The Scene: Quick and casual daytime eats.

Banzai Sushi • banzaisushi.ca 134 Peter Street (at Richmond St. W.) 416-341-0404

Granted this is a spring newsletter, but the fact is, summer-starved diners go patio crazy at the smallest hint of nice weather, so it’s good to be armed and ready with current information about the patios, decks and open air dining options in and around your neighbourhood. Whether it’s a courtyard setting abuzz with the clam or of warm-weather socializing, a breezy rooftop BBQ or just a casual street-side table, the city abounds with outside dining possibilities.

Photos by Tony Whibley

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

The Scene: Where else can you enjoy sushi under the stars?

After innovating with modern-day sushi ambiances, Banzai! is now preparing to adapt to the warm season with a late May unveiling of a new exterior patio next to its Peter Street location. Covering part of the adjoining parking lot, the new patio will feature a cozy setting with 75 seats arranged in flexible semi-private cubicles. The Banzai! patio will also offer an exterior bar and grill.

Brassaii • Brassaii.com 461 King Street West (416) 598-4730 With space for 70 diners, a choice of eight different salads and an outdoor grill cooking up traditional bistro fare with a twist, Brassaii’s patio mixes a Europeaninspired menu with the pleasures of dining in a downtown courtyard setting. New planters filled with wild grass and a large canopy over the bar are some of the renos planned for May. Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks, the Brassaii patio also features live music on Wednesdays and live DJs Thursday through to Saturday.

The Scene: Cool after-work comfort in a piazza-like setting.

Crush Wine Bar • crushwinebar.com 455 King Street West (416) 977-1234 A classic French bistro patio with an awning and marble-topped trattoria tables. Surrounded by ironwork to match the courtyard’s gate, Crush’s outdoor dining seats 36. Lunch and dinner are served Monday to Friday, and Saturdays are dinner only. The Scene: A lingering lunch over a good bottle of Chablis.

georgeonqueen.ca

The Scene: Cozy up to your neighbours at the long-bench table in this very urban oasis.

Rodney’s Oyster House • rodneysoysterhouse.com 469 King Street West (416) 363-8105 The Oyster Garden, as Rodney’s calls its patio, is a cozy, shrubenclosed corner of a courtyard that seats 40 at communal tables. Open from Monday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, some times to check out include the Thursday and Friday lunch BBQ or witness oyster shucking at its finest any night of the week (although the shucking happens mostly inside). The Oyster Garden opens officially on Thursday June 2nd with a big lobster boil that night. Also watch for the Ontario Oyster Fest held this year on Sunday July 17th from 2-10 pm.

111C Queen Street East (416) 863-6006 With space for 65 diners, George offers a variety of smaller portioned dishes designed to allow guests to create their own tasting menus. Executive Chef Lorenzo Loseto brings to his dishes an affinity for a meal with abundant The Scene: A sophisticated dining aromas and flavours, oasis that is at once luxurious and which makes George affordable. destined to become a Toronto culinary landmark. The bi-level patio is chic and tranquil with the sounds of the city drowned by the setting’s waterfall. It’s a dinner food and wine experience for the sophisticated al fresco diner.

Hernando’s Hideaway hernandoshideaway.com

West 500 King Street West (416) 361-9004

The Scene: Ultra hip and friendly with a beach bar feel.

With a 160-person capacity, suspended tenfoot diameter umbrellas and a 10 x 10 VIP tent, West’s great outdoors has more in common with Nikki’s Beach Bar in Miami than it does with your run-of-the-mill, street variety T.O. patio. Tapas are on the menu and drinks are on the table from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am, Wednesday to Saturday on this outdoor heated patio.

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George

The Scene: Good vantage point from which to Margarita all day long.

52A Wellington Street East (416) 929-3629 Not a patio exactly, but Hernando’s gets points for fresh air dining with its open front where you can sit street side, one flight up from traffic to admire the Flatiron building with a Margarita in your hand. An awning protects you from direct light or inclement weather, and on those really steamy days, you’ll get the benefit of air-conditioned comfort with some fresh air thrown in the mix. Serving Enchilladas, Quesadillas and Nachos, Hernandos has extended summer hours for Sunday (5:00-10:00).

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

(clockwise) James and Other Apes at Osgoode Station; Images from Ground Zero at 441 King St. West; Evil Art and Good Advertising at Transit shelter; Chernobyl at Nicholas Metivier Gallery.

King West Central

City-wide CONTACT Photo Fest Launches from King West Central

CONTACT-ING ON KING WEST Questioning Truth in Photography is the theme of this year’s Toronto-wide photography festival and you can best track down the work you want to see by using the CONTACT Magazine, as your guide. It includes a colour-coded map highlighting exhibitions throughout the city. King West Central, however, will be a hub of CONTACT-related events and exhibits, including: • photographer Joel Meyerowitz’s images from 9/11 exhibited in a turn-of-the century temporary gallery at 441 King Street West. • backlit photography on basement-level windows; Netherlander Walter Willems’ souterrain, provocative photographs of abandoned interiors of homeless person’s dwellings. • building facades and poster hoarding in downtown Toronto that examines the realm of social, public and street photography; Morad Bouchakour’s PARTY! in the Netherlands. • billboards at Richmond and Spadina exhibiting large-scale images by Canadian photojournalists Lana Slezic and Roger LeMoyne. • hauntingly beautiful images by Robert Polidori documenting the destruction of Chernobyl at Nicholas Metivier Gallery. • banners highlighting CONTACT exhibitions will replace traditional advertising on building façades. • an exhibition by senior photographers Geoffrey James and Volker Seding at Crush, whose contrasting projects explore Toronto's natural and architectural heritage.

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

ontext, as a photographer will tell you, is critical. As it is with the capture of images, so too is it with festivals, and CONTACT, in its ninth year, has always been spread about the city to exist in a variety of contexts from restaurants to galleries and public installations. With more than 170 venues across Toronto, this May-long festival of photography is as ubiquitous as the oft heard question, Where is CONTACT, exactly? The simple fact is that CONTACT is all over the city, but a concentration of festival-related activities, including a launch party, a public gallery space at 441 King Street West showing Joel Meyerowitz’s collection of 9/11 images as well as a number of public installations in the courtyards and on building facades can be found this year at King West Central. This year, images center around the theme of Questioning Truth in Photography.

North America’s Largest Photography Festival For festival organizers, the idea of bringing the continent’s largest photo festival (some 400 local, national and international photographers are exhibiting this year) to the neighbourhood is a good fit. “This area has amazing bones,” says Nicholas Metivier, a local gallery owner and a member of the festival’s board. “We needed to give CONTACT a center to give it strength.” Building stronger partnerships and having a visual center, Metivier explains, will help attract partnerships beyond Allied Properties’ involvement and Hewlett-Packard’s position as premiere sponsor. “We’ve been trying to find some sort of visual home for the festival. By using the King and Spadina neighbourhood with the help of Allied, we can do a lot of programming in a concise area so that people can enjoy a number of exhibitions in one spot,” says Stephen Bulger, president of CONTACT’s board.

Getting back to basics with circuit training

By Paul McQuade

Circuit training is a great way to build strength, improve aerobic fitness and burn body fat all at the same time. If you are a beginner or have not exercised for some time then this may be just the thing you to kick start your spring fitness program. All you need to get started is a sturdy chair or bench, and a stopwatch. Perform the workout three days per week for three weeks, keep track of your total reps and strive to set a new personal best each session by doing more total reps. After the initial three-week period you should change most of the exercises or consider joining a gym. And as with any program, don’t forget to consult with your doctor before starting this program.

T H E

W O R KO U T: Bodyweight Squats: with abs tight, keep it slow and controlled.

Jumping Jacks or Running on the spot: for 30 seconds Push Ups: keep your back parallel to the floor.

Crunch: keep your abs tight and your chin tucked in.

Step-Ups: do one set of reps and then change legs.

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T H E

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TOTUM TIPS TO KICK START YOUR SPRING FITNESS

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Understanding Photography as Art As photography finds a greater foothold in contemporary art, a festival such as CONTACT encourage audiences to look at images in photography as forms of art, as opposed to the visual bombardment of advertising photography we are subjected to on billboards and in magazines, explains Emily McInnes, the festival’s Director of Development. The festival is largely comprised of restaurant and gallery venues, however, there are a significant number of public installations this year. “That’s where we use space traditionally reserved for advertising and replace it with photo-based images,” says McInnes. Downtown’s Osgoode subway station speaks directly to the theme of questioning truth by replacing all the platform ads on one side with 14 close-up portraits of orphaned gorillas raised by humans after their parents were killed by poachers. The images reveal human-like individuality and an unmistakable range of character. On the other side is a work from a Moscow collective that photographed 14 portraits of teenage girls; seven are convicted murderers and seven are innocent high school students. Their identities are not revealed, leaving the audience to judge personality through the images alone. The CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival kicks off May 1st at 2:30 pm in the courtyard at 461 King Street West. Preceeding the public launch, CONTACT is hosting a sold-out, exclusive fundraiser lunch at Brassaii Bistro with guest speaker David Byrne from Talking Heads. www.contactphoto.com

Bench Dips: keep your back perpendicular to the floor, arms at 90° and finish with arms straight.

S C H E D U L E :

Week 1 – do as many circuits in 8 minutes as possible Session 1 perform 5 reps per exercise Session 2 perform 6 reps per exercise Session 3 perform 7 reps per exercise Week 2 – do two 6-minute circuits resting 2 minutes between circuits Session 4 perform 6 reps per exercise Session 5 perform 7 reps per exercise Session 6 perform 8 reps per exercise Week 3 – do three 6-minute circuits resting 2 minutes between circuits Session 7 perform 7 reps per exercise Session 8 perform 8 reps per exercise Session 9 perform 9 reps per exercise

Note* During a circuit you can rest as much or as little as you need, a good rule of thumb is to slow the pace down if you are unable to complete the prescribed number of repetitions for an exercise.

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005

Incoming! Allied Adds Montreal Buildings to its Growing Portfolio November 2004’s purchase of 425 Viger Street West, located in the city’s growing International District, and the recent April 2005 purchase of 3575 St. Laurent Blvd.’s ‘The Balfour Building’, south of the Plateau district, bring more warehouse-style heritage buildings to the Allied portfolio. 425 Viger Street West

Allied Properties REIT’s recent acquisition of a downtown Montreal office building is the second such purchase in that city in six months and marks the continuation of the company’s plans for geographic expansion. “Montreal is the right market in which to begin this expansion] given its strength as a 24-hour city, its large inventory of Class I office properties and the ongoing revitalization that is occurring in the International District and in Old Montreal,” says Michael Emory, the REIT’s president and CEO.

Over the past five years, the International District and Old Montreal have seen significant investment, says Mike Bonneveld, the REIT’s director of acquisitions. “It’s similar to the King West and King East areas. There are starting to be some good concentrations of office tenants and new condos and retails services continue to improve the area,” Bonneveld says.

The Community Chronicle is published four times a year by: Allied Properties REIT 469 King Street West Fourth Floor Toronto, ON M5V 1K4 Editor: Yvan Marston yvan@gravitydesigninc.com

3575 St. Laurent Blvd.’s ‘The Balfour Building’

Design/Layout: Gravity Design Inc. scott@gravitydesigninc.com

Hammam Redefines Traditional Spa Experience

pening this spring, Hammam Spa will not only bring to its space many of the authentic Turkish bath house rituals, it will also offer unique and innovative treatments from other exotic parts of the world as well, explains Zark Fatah, one of the partners behind the holistic service center to open at 602 King Street West. Working with Antonio Tadrissi (Prototype Design Lab) and operating partner Elle Palladini (Clear Day Spa), Fatah promises to reinvent the traditional spa experience for the Toronto market. Buoyed by the success of his Blowfish Restaurant & Sake Bar that opened at King West and Bathurst Street two, and the growing popularity of his Century Room, which opened six months ago, Fatah sees the growth potential for daytime retail destinations in the area. “A product like a spa or clothing retail, or other types of daytime

Front entrance / reception area

businesses will bring more traffic down here. So that it’s not just seen as a nightclub or dining destination, we want to make it about lifestyle,” he says. Hammam Spa, which is the Farsi term for Turkish bath, is designed to be a “holistic urban spa” that offers a wide range of services and membership programs.

Spa treatments will include registered massage therapy, body and skin care treatments as well as hand and foot care therapies designed to promote wellness. As the name implies, the spa will feature a traditional “Hammam” (Turkish bath), two uniquely appointed spa suites for guests to enjoy a more exclusive experience, and there will also be private lounge facilities for men. www.hammamspa.ca

Community Chronicle • Spring 2005