Toronto Union Centre | 298m | 54s | Westbank | Bjarke Ingels Group

This tower is far enough off that I'll believe the performance venue is going in… when the performance venue goes in.

We wrote about the performance venue back in 2019 when it was revealed that Allied and Westbank had hired BIG to redesign the building. We then wrote about the performance venue being axed in 2020 by the time the DRP were getting a look at the project.

So, it was proposed, then it was axed, now it's proposed again, and there are no tenants, so no building. Why would we write about it again until something were actually happening?

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renx.ca

Allied considers sale of Toronto data centre portfolio

Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T) has confirmed it is exploring the potential sale of its Toronto-based urban data centre portfolio.
renx.ca renx.ca

Allied Properties REIT (AP-UN-T) has confirmed it is exploring the potential sale of its Toronto-based urban data centre (UDC) portfolio.

In a brief release Thursday morning, the Toronto-based REIT said the portfolio is unencumbered and does not include the Union Centre property at 20 York St.

It identifies Scotiabank as its financial advisor but offers few other details other than to note it has not entered into any agreements at this point. It also notes there is no guarantee the trust will end up disposing of the portfolio.

The trust does not intend to make any further comment about the process.

"As a matter of policy, Allied does not comment on unusual market activity, rumours or speculation and only comments on material developments in accordance with relevant securities legislation,” the release states.

“Allied does not intend to make any further public announcement about a potential transaction related to its UDC portfolio unless it determines that disclosure is required by applicable securities laws.”

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Allied's Toronto UDC portfolio​

Allied currently operates three network-dense UDC spaces in downtown Toronto.

The trust established the capability in 2009 when it acquired 151 Front St. W., which it notes is “the largest internet exchange point in Canada and the third-largest in North America.”

It has since expanded its data centre portfolio by retrofitting a portion of 905 King St. W. and a portion of 250 Front St. W.

“Allied’s deep expertise in adaptively re-using urban structures has contributed meaningfully to its success in operating network-dense data centre space in downtown Toronto,” the trust states in its Q3 financial report.
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UDC portfolio transaction announced today. Who doesn't love killing the golden goose?

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So this is basically dead then, or can Union Centre proceed minus 150 Front St W? From what I recall it basically doesn't touch it.
 
*Zooms back from reading the tiny, tiny font announcement*

...looks like another developer shedding its white elephant office components. Not really surprised at that.

innsertnamehere said:
So this is basically dead then, or can Union Centre proceed minus 150 Front St W? From what I recall it basically doesn't touch it.
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That doesn't mean KDDI won't build something more appropriate for this site. They seem to more specialize is this sorta stuff, I gather.

Here is a brief overview of them:

en.wikipedia.org

KDDI - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
ProjectEnd said:
"Does not include the Union Centre property at 20 York St."
Click to expand...
/\
innsertnamehere said:
So this is basically dead then, or can Union Centre proceed minus 150 Front St W? From what I recall it basically doesn't touch it.
Click to expand...
/\ /\
UtakataNoAnnex said:
*Zooms back from reading the tiny, tiny font announcement*

...looks like another developer shedding its white elephant office components. Not really surprised at that.


That doesn't mean KDDI won't build something more appropriate for this site. They seem to more specialize is this sorta stuff, I gather.

Here is a brief overview of them:

en.wikipedia.org

KDDI - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
Does not include the 20 York site. Doesn't mean we'll be seeing any building in the near or medium-term future though.
 
Unbelievably short sited. In a world where (sigh) AI is becoming more and more mainstream (not to mention WFH in general), the requirement for serious computing power is only going to increase. Yet here we have Allied doubling down on the notion that everyone is going to return to physical workspaces in the near future and selling off their extremely profitable UDC spaces. I do not get it.
 
ProjectEnd said:
Unbelievably short sited. In a world where (sigh) AI is becoming more and more mainstream (not to mention WFH in general), the requirement for serious computing power is only going to increase. Yet here we have Allied doubling down on the notion that everyone is going to return to physical workspaces in the near future and selling off their extremely profitable UDC spaces. I do not get it.
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AI isn't location sensitive as there are no timing concerns when building the model (the computationally expensive portion). Web and interactive stuff is in urban data centres for the best end-user experience, and small AIs and smart phones have been reducing that somewhat by moving some processes to the end device.

Building very large AIs models is, however, highly cost sensitive. Price of electricity, cooling, etc. are a large concern for very large scale deployments. Very large scale AI work will be done in remote data centres connected directly to hydroelectric dams with water cooling facilities. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have some facilities like this and they suck for serving web pages. The completed/compact model is shipped elsewhere for interactive use.
 
rbt said:
AI isn't location sensitive as there are no timing concerns when building the model (the computationally expensive portion). Web and interactive stuff is in urban data centres for the best end-user experience, and small AIs and smart phones have been reducing that somewhat by moving some processes to the end device.

Building very large AIs models is, however, highly cost sensitive. Price of electricity, cooling, etc. are a large concern for very large scale deployments. Very large scale AI work will be done in remote data centres connected directly to hydroelectric dams with water cooling facilities. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have some facilities like this and they suck for serving web pages. The completed/compact model is shipped elsewhere for interactive use.
Click to expand...
Interesting, thanks for the insight. I'm aware that latency issues with data centres are the reason they require urban locations and I would have thought that lots of the computing power undergirding things like AI / delivery app servers / etc. would also be handled by such facilities. I know that by and large the big boys don't use the smaller, downtown, facilities, but why would Microsoft be constructing a large data centre in the suburbs (Islington and 401) where direct access to the sort of cooling power you describe would be just as unavailable as downtown? Perhaps more so as 151 Front is hooked into Enwave...
 
so i work in IT at a company that uses equinix's "TR1" at 151 front street. while "TR2" on parliment street exists, 151 front street is home to basically every major company's hardware. It is litterally Toronto's biggest datacenter. It was never going to be touched.
I looked through the union center plans before, it didnt touch it.
The project should still be continuing
As for the datacenter. Currently there really isnt a replacement for it that exists anywhere else in toronto.
put it another way, if youre downtown, that datacenter is the reason why latency is 10s of milliseconds faster than the suburbs

Microsoft and google can build their own DC's but its whats known as "co-location" that really matters where any company can rent racks of space to place their hardware having the power and cooling all managed for you which is super expensive
 
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