Toronto RBC WaterPark Place III | 140.2m | 30s | Oxford Properties | WZMH

People may be forgetting how old the Royal Bank Plaza is. It and a few other downtown buildings (hello, Commerce Court), which used to be considered "leading edge", no longer can offer some of the features that new top-quality properties now have, particularly green features. After Royal Bank moves, this may provide an opportunity for Oxford to do a major reno of the older building, similar to the reno being carried out on some of the TD Centre. Royal Bank Plaza still has a very striking appearance, but that is no longer enough.

On the other hand, as already mentioned, relatively few Royal Bank people are currently still in the Royal Bank Plaza. My guess is that of those moving into the new building, upon its completion, the majority may come from other locations such as "Grade B" locations on Front Street.

Also, it remains to be seen what effect, if any, may result from the current restructuring of RBC Dexia.
 
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Any theories on how Dexia may impact ?

I think the part they owned wasn't really effected too much, that's more the banking division.

Now that they're taking on more ? Maybe more jobs for Toronto, maybe nothing changes as all the jobs are already in Europe ?
 
I work in the 310/320/330 complex and I know we are looking to move. Right now we are vacating 180 Wellington and part of another tower with some of the operations moving to North York, which thankfully we aren't considering for my department. Plaza is still considered premier and having just been on one of the floors this week, it was rather nice, but I've heard some are crap.
 
https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20111015/RBRBCTOWERPRINTATL

Pension funds to build RBC headquarters on Toronto waterfront

Saturday, October 15, 2011
The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- Two of Canada's largest pension plans are teaming up to build a 30-storey office tower in downtown Toronto that will become the new national headquarters for Royal Bank of Canada.

The development, to be called RBC WaterPark Place, is a 50-50 joint venture between the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Oxford Properties Group, which is the real estate arm of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.

It is being built on the north side of Queens Quay between Bay and York Streets, with construction slated to begin later this year.

RBC will make WaterPark Place the new national headquarters for its Canadian Banking business and occupy more than half of the 930,000-square-foot property.

More than 4,000 RBC employees are expected to move into the new space beginning in the third quarter of 2014.

"Oxford is excited to develop this exceptional piece of real estate, and to bring this world class office project to Toronto's vibrant waterfront community," said Oxford president and chief executive officer Blake Hutcheson.

"We are also very proud to build upon Oxford's 50-year relationship with RBC," he said, adding that the signing of a pre-lease for 60 per cent of the development was "a testament to both the quality of the project and the strength of the relationship."

Oxford will oversee all aspects of the development and management of the property.

Peter Ballon, CPPIB's head of real estate investments, Americas, said the development "provides us with the opportunity to add a major state-of-the-art office tower to our Canadian real estate portfolio with a premier tenant in place."

Dave McKay, group head, Canadian banking for RBC, said the move underlines the bank's strong commitment to the growth and development of the city of Toronto, the downtown core, as well as to our clients, employees and the communities we serve."

RBC will occupy approximately 550,000 square feet of RBC WaterPark Place, which will have more than 50,000 square feet of retail services and amenities on the lower floors.

Oxford and CPPIB co-own a portfolio of office properties across Canada valued at approximately $3-billion, and are currently also developing 1021 West Hastings in Vancouver.

Oxford, the real estate arm of the OMERS Worldwide Group of Companies, with over 1,300 employees and approximately $17-billion of real assets that it manages for itself and on behalf of its co-owners and investment partners.

The CPPI is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan to pay current benefits on behalf of 17 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries.

It invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, inflation-linked bonds, infrastructure and fixed income instruments. As of June 30, the CPP Fund totalled $153.2-billion.

OMERS has more than $53-billion in net assets invested on behalf of more than 400,000 members.
 
taal said:
Any theories on how Dexia may impact ?

I think the part they owned wasn't really effected too much, that's more the banking division.

Now that they're taking on more ? Maybe more jobs for Toronto, maybe nothing changes as all the jobs are already in Europe ?
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Dexia is bankrupt and is selling all of it's operations worldwide as mandated by the French and Belgian governments who are now funding their day to day operations.

I've heard the Canada joint venture with RBC is rather successful and RBC will buy out Dexia's ownership.
I imagine though that they will stay in their current office as they did just move there and probably have years to go on their lease.
It is supposedly a nice building, but they apparently spent the minimum on furnishing it inside. Concrete floors and exposed ceilings are the norm.

I expect the RBC culture will steer that ship rapidly back to North American shores, which may mean more jobs here or not. I've heard from people who have worked there that the turnover is super high, but at the same time that means they are always hiring and it is an easy place for new grads to get their first job, which is important thing to have in the city these days.
 
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^^

that's very good news, especially with all the new business grads that are being pumped out of our education system these days.
 
DaninToronto said:
I work in the 310/320/330 complex and I know we are looking to move. Right now we are vacating 180 Wellington and part of another tower with some of the operations moving to North York, which thankfully we aren't considering for my department. Plaza is still considered premier and having just been on one of the floors this week, it was rather nice, but I've heard some are crap.
Click to expand...

Can I ask where in North York ?

Also, is all of 180 Wellington vacating or only part of it.
 
Jonny5 said:
Dexia is bankrupt and is selling all of it's operations worldwide as mandated by the French and Belgian governments who are now funding their day to day operations.

I've heard the Canada joint venture with RBC is rather successful and RBC will buy out Dexia's ownership.
I imagine though that they will stay in their current office as they did just move there and probably have years to go on their lease.
It is supposedly a nice building, but they apparently spent the minimum on furnishing it inside. Concrete floors and exposed ceilings are the norm.

I expect the RBC culture will steer that ship rapidly back to North American shores, which may mean more jobs here or not. I've heard from people who have worked there that the turnover is super high, but at the same time that means they are always hiring and it is an easy place for new grads to get their first job, which is important thing to have in the city these days.
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Thanks for that! From a couple I know at Dexia in the new RBC building, all those operations are safe and staying put. As you said it's possible more jobs will come but it's hard to say.

I've been in RBCs building beside the RITZ, it's pretty nice, as you said exposed concrete and the like is the norm in just about anything nowadays.

If you want nice finishings, you should check out some of the tech / media companies on King west / Spadina / that area in general - there are some amazing offices there.
 
Speeking of 180 Welginton, a recent report said it was 100% occupied and no upcomming leases - kind of strange if RBC is leaving.

Also, the new RBC building has a ridiculously low vacany rate, about 1% i.e. the building is basically completely full.
 
yyzer said:
very interesting indeed.......from the press release...

ox800.jpg
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Nice. I like it - and thank goodness it isn't yet another condo development.
 
Since this is going on Queen's Quay, in a tourist area, I am wondering how this will effect the public realm? If it's just a big lobby for an office tower, it will not add much animation to the street. I just hope they take into consideration that this is a busy pedestrian/tourist street and put some restaurants and stores facing the street. We already have the ugly condo/parking lot on the south side of QQ, so this street needs all the help it can get. Maybe the city can require that retail line QQ.
 
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