Geekaroo
Active Member
Don't know if this has been mentioned. They've leased the storefront next to Bank of Montreal. To Royal Bank RBC - what exciting shopping options!!!
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Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza
Gphorce
Active Member
I had a major facepalm when I walked by and saw that an RBC was opening next to BMO. I'm guessing they will take up the remaining eastern ground level units. This leaves the corner (entrance?) and the south units which will probably be a rabba or another bank. Yay. Really developing an enticing urban fabric. (please note the sarcasm)
Torontovibe
Senior Member
These guys are just setting this retail complex up for failure. Who is going to want to go out of their way to shop here when there is no decent retail? What a huge disappointment, especially since I keep reading about how many retailers are wanting to open stores and restaurants, in the downtown core. Canderel is useless.
67Cup
Active Member
Skyjacked's wonderful photo makes me realize how built up the area just east of Yonge actually is. I am used to thinking of the core as bounded by Yonge on the East and University of the west, but this is obviously changing. All the construction in the Entertainment District is extending the skyline west. The skyline east of Yonge, which would feature in this kind of photo, will grow dramatically with 1 Bloor East, 88 Scott and the row of condos under construction on Charles St. E.
I realize that the telephoto effect makes the buildup seem more dense than it is in reality, Still, it is clear that the city core is indeed increasingly stretching east.
I realize that the telephoto effect makes the buildup seem more dense than it is in reality, Still, it is clear that the city core is indeed increasingly stretching east.
steveve
Senior Member
I feel ya. Bay Street clearly is the backbone of our skyline, which gives the impression of Yonge and University being the major streets that bound the density, but in the next few years, Yonge Street (though fewer) will have much taller skyscrapers that push the 200m mark.
With Aura, One Bloor, 460 Yonge, 501 Yonge, and even the future Holt Renfrew tower being basically along yonge, we'll be getting a more Manhattan style skyline (rectangularish) and balanced out. (Even Massey, L tower, and the future One Yonge developments will further add to Yonge street's future dominance.
exciting decade ahead!
*ya, sweet pic Skyjacked! you can really appreciate how slim Aura is from a distance (it looks MASSIVE) from street level
Hipster Duck
Senior Member
Wait a minute. Isn't there a BMO at the base of RoCP1? Did they open a second branch less than 150m away or am I missing something here?
To put a bright spin on things, the College Park area might become the place where downtown Toronto residents do mundane, suburban shopping. Shopping for bath mats and Christmas gift wrap and stuff like that. We need to do those too, and you might as well concentrate them in one place. Parts of 6th Avenue in Manhattan seem to serve a similar purpose, except that the buildings look like this.
uwaterloo2010
New Member
Don't forget drinking Starbucks coffee too. There's one at the base of RoCP2 and just around the corner at Yonge and Carlton
Mississauga Slim
Active Member
Yonge and Bay are not far apart as the crow flies but, with respect to regular pedestrian traffic, a branch at Bay and College would be along the daily walking path of a different group of people than one at Yonge and Gerrard. People in the city tend to stick to very regular patterns when it comes to daily walking routes. Most customers who make daily or weekly visits to their branch (they do exist) would consider it an inconvenience to have to divert off of Bay to Yonge, or vice versa if that was not a part of their normal routine.
It's the same for many businesses that rely on daily foot traffic, like Starbucks, for example. They know that there are many people who will walk down the same street every day and, never more than once a year, walk down the parallel street just 100 meters away.
It's the same for many businesses that rely on daily foot traffic, like Starbucks, for example. They know that there are many people who will walk down the same street every day and, never more than once a year, walk down the parallel street just 100 meters away.
chriskayTO
Active Member
With banks able to relegate most back-office branch functions to centralized departments (where 1 person can take care of these functions for a whole list of branches), branches can be constructed with very minimal staff, which is the biggest operating expense. The other benefit is that they can take much smaller spaces now - where previously branches needed 4000-5000 sf, now 3000 sf is more standard, even further reducing lease costs and squeezing into spaces where previously a branch could not be accommodated. RBC even opened a 1500 sf "small retail store" recently in Montreal.
Sorry, don't mean to go OT, but there is a reason why banks are able to open a lot more branches in close proximity to each other, whereas 15 years ago they were closing branches left, right, and centre.
Sorry, don't mean to go OT, but there is a reason why banks are able to open a lot more branches in close proximity to each other, whereas 15 years ago they were closing branches left, right, and centre.
Traynor
Senior Member
I am all for a bank of Bank Machines (Like a multi-bank food court) on every corner downtown. But this Starbucksification of financial institutions is getting rediculous. Almost as ridiculous as a writer coining the word "Starbucksification".
I lived downtown for 20 years and visited my branch on maybe 75 occasions during that time... But I could never find enough of my institution's banks machines downtown (So I could avoid that buck-fifty charge... I'm a cheap bastard and banks are rich enough for my liking.)
This makes more sense to me than all these brick and mortar... I mean... Glass and plaster, bank branches on Yonge Street:
(Image found HERE )
I lived downtown for 20 years and visited my branch on maybe 75 occasions during that time... But I could never find enough of my institution's banks machines downtown (So I could avoid that buck-fifty charge... I'm a cheap bastard and banks are rich enough for my liking.)
This makes more sense to me than all these brick and mortar... I mean... Glass and plaster, bank branches on Yonge Street:
(Image found HERE )
marsh
Active Member
this is to be expected = developers don't want the financial risk of small independent businesses which add to the vibrancy of street life - hence the Starbucks/banks/Shoppers Drugmarts, etc. They want big chain well established businesses as tenants. I think its dissappoint and all of this development is going to kill Yonge Street and not revitalize it.
someMidTowner
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Aura inside and out from today:
Outside:
Inside:
Outside:
Inside:
Traynor
Senior Member
Could I put forward a suggestion? Could all our photographers please refrain from imaging the lower level until the stores are occupied? The above images actually turn my stomach... Seriously... I feel unwell when I look at the sad 'Dentist-office' walls and storefronts.
someMidTowner
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I will stop when they lock the doors, til then, sorry.