- What Community-minded developer TAS has listed a Scarborough warehouse in the Golden Mile area
- Why The site is close to major traffic arteries and the future Eglinton Crosstown LRT
- What next The Golden Mile is slated to be redeveloped over the next few decades into a high-density neighbourhood
An impact-driven developer that also targets value-added properties for commercial and community uses is looking to unload a warehouse in Toronto’s Scarborugh district.
Toronto-based TAS is asking $27m, or $314/sq ft, for the 86,000 sq ft property at 772 Warden Avenue, close to the historic Golden Mile shopping district. Tenants include a food bank and a workshop that makes furniture out of discarded wood. CBRE is representing the seller.
In 2022, a 73,000 sq ft warehouse in Scarborough traded for $10.2m, or $140/sq ft, according to Green Street’s Sales Comps Database.
Marketing materials tout the warehouse’s proximity to the under-construction Eglinton Crosstown light rail line, which will have a stop at the nearby intersection of Warden and Eglinton Avenues.
The building has a clear height of 16.5 feet, 13 truck-level doors and two drive-in doors. The property’s roof has been rebuilt, and there is 7,000 sq ft of available office space.
TAS purchased the site in 2021 as part of a $120m adaptive reuse joint venture with LaSalle Investment Management that targeted vacant or underused commercial properties in Toronto that could be repositioned and leased to small businesses and nonprofits, some at below-market rents. It also would look to improve energy efficiency and carbon footprints at the acquired properties.
“There is significant market dislocation in Toronto for repurposing rather than demolishing certain assets, and a tangible opportunity to invest ahead of the path of growth in areas like the Golden Mile and the Junction,” said Mike Cornelissen, then LaSalle’s senior vice president of acquisitions, in a release at the time.
As of 2023, 6% of TAS’ total commercial portfolio was rented at below-market rates. The company aims to bring that to 10% by 2030.
Bounded by Victoria Park Road and Birchmount Road, the 280-acre Golden Mile has been an industrial and retail hub. The area is named for the Golden Mile Plaza shopping centre that opened in 1954 at 1880 Eglinton Avenue, a kilometre northwest of the TAS property.
The plaza is set for a multiphase redevelopment. Owner Choice Properties plans to construct a high-rise residential neighbourhood, adjacent to the upcoming light rail line that will include retail and office space.
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