Toronto Scotiabank North Tower at Bay Adelaide Centre | 140.2m | 32s | Brookfield | KPMB

[BJH]

If anyone is passing through, we'd love to hear if the food court has at least partially closed…

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I'm sitting in the food court. Extreme Pita is gone, as is Manhattan's as mentioned above. Szechuan Express and Thai Island have signs saying they are closed as of the end of July (which is what triggered me to look for this thread).

 

[interchange42]

Thanks for the update, @BJH, and welcome to UT! We'll look forward to more news whenever you have it!

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[Bayer]

The food court at Scotia Plaza was an absolute madhouse yesterday. I assume it is about to get even worse.

 

[maestro]

Aren't they are all madhouses?

Nothing has quite approached the insanity when Burger King still had Whopper Wednesdays. I may have to check Scotia out.

 

[Atlantis]

This is happening a lot quicker than we might have anticipated. The entire food court is closed up and behind hoarding today:

 

[interchange42]

Brookfield STILL hasn't announced that anything's happening, so I'm thinking that you must be a part of the elaborate hoax, @Atlantis. Thanks for the photos though!!

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[Skeezix]

Not surprising news, but the one tenant left in the Bay Adelaide food court, Tim Hortons, will be moving to the old Marche location in the concourse in October (likely the one spot in the Bay Adelaide concourse that can accommodate the line-ups without interfering with other tenants, etc.). There has been work happening in the Marche space for weeks now, and the signs went up this week announcing the move.

If Brookfield snags a lead tenant for Bay Adelaide North, it seems like they at least now all have their concourse ducks in a row.

Work is also happening in the old Scotiabank Insurance location (just to the south of the new Timmie's location and the dental office) and, to a lesser degree, in the new retail space in the concourse under Bay Adelaide East.

 

[Skeezix]

Tim Hortons has opened in the new space. But Brookfield also appears to be renovating other spaces, including the small retail units directly underneath the Bay Adelaide East elevator banks. Revitasize juice bar has opened in one of them.

 

[wmedia]

Is the food court now closed for the duration of the new tower construction, or is this just for some kind of prep or staging?

 

[interchange42]

Brookfield ain't talkin'… yet.

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[A Torontonian Now]

Just walked through the PATH level of the Bay Adelaide Centre.

Not much different from the previous, but this is what it looks like now:

P.S. - I'm really enjoying the fact that I no longer have to downsize my pics to upload to UT - saves time for those ones I don't need to crop.

 

[jje1000]

I almost wish that Bay Adelaide North was developed in its original residential-hotel form. Another same-look office tower doesn't do much for the vibrancy of the area and only delays the construction of the more interesting office towers in the core.

 

[Skeezix]

I almost wish that Bay Adelaide North was developed in its original residential-hotel form. Another same-look office tower doesn't do much for the vibrancy of the area and only delays the construction of the more interesting office towers in the core.

This was debated fairly extensively at one time in the main Bay Adelaide thread, but I don't agree. Another hotel/condo would be such a wasted opportunity in the Financial District, where office buildings generate jobs and way more in property tax. Trump Tower on the other side of the square did very little for vibrancy in the area, so I don't see why Bay Adelaide North as condo/hotel would. A restaurant at the base of Bay Adelaide North I think would accomplish just as much as any hotel/condo, and IIRC (I haven't gone back and looked) the plans for Bay Adelaide do seem to contemplate such a use at grade.

The best scenario would be to keep the more valuable office use, but pedestrianize Temperance so as to create space that people actually want to spend time in. With the square and Cloud Gardens on opposite sides, with the restaurants on the east and west ends, with the heritage facades, etc. - it would be a nice stretch - somewhere to linger, and a place that would attract people. Might even convince the owner of the Aikenheads building to stop wasting the ground floor of that building on offices (depending on existing leases). Temperance would be a perfect spot for pop-up events during the summer.

 

[steveve]

I almost wish that Bay Adelaide North was developed in its original residential-hotel form. Another same-look office tower doesn't do much for the vibrancy of the area and only delays the construction of the more interesting office towers in the core.

I definitely preferred the more slender, taller and rectangular form of the original vision, as well as the concept of a mixed-use North Tower. However, I can’t see anything other than an office tower working here today, specifically a hotel component, as you have the Adelaide closeby and the massive Sheraton Centre just down the street.
Sadly, this is filler and not much more. Neither the height or design impresses, though it will be nice to see the entire complex completed after so many years.

 

[jje1000]

To be honest, Trump Tower is single tower (now joined by INDX) in a sea of office towers (and no doubt one heavily bought into by the rich and investors), so it would have naturally have had little effect. Perhaps a mixture of office and residential would have worked as well, in lieu of the hotel component.

Regardless, I agree that office towers need better activation on their ground floors- activity needs to be occurring Saturdays and Sundays as well- I think this will have an impact on the type of retail and restaurants going into the spaces (and their intended clientele). Restaurants catering to the Bay street execs are exclusive to a certain extent.