It's not every day you get to leave your mark on the Toronto skyline.
But that's just what TD will have the chance to do once construction is completed on a new office tower in the heart of Canada's largest city, that will serve as a major step forward in the evolution of the colleague experience at TD.
The new tower is being built at 160 Front Street West in Toronto, a short walk from TD's global headquarters at King and Bay Streets, and about a block away from Union Station in the city's downtown core.
This month, co-owners TD, Cadillac Fairview and the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (on behalf of its client Ontario Pension Board) will break ground on the new 46-storey office tower on the northeast corner of Front Street and Simcoe Street in Toronto, which will feature more than 1.2-million square feet of office space, 339 parking stalls, and 12,290 square feet of retail space. The building was designed by world renowned Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, in collaboration with B+H Architects as the Architect of Record.
Due to open in the fall of 2022, the tower at 160 Front Street West represents not only a reimagining of the way employees work, but the next chapter in TD's real estate investment strategy as the organization has a chance to design, from the ground up, a new kind of workplace. The new tower will be a complement to the flagship TD Centre; which, along with many of TD's other locations in downtown Toronto, will be modernized to the same standard over the course of the next few years.
Constructing a campus
As a significant presence in the tower, TD has an opportunity to play a unique role in its design and construction. This unique partnership with Cadillac Fairview will give TD the ability to shape the vision of the interior workspaces and employee environments to drive colleague collaboration and improved workflow across the organization.
"What we are doing here represents a big shift and evolution to our workplace strategy since it gives us the opportunity to construct a campus," said Paul Whitehead, TD's Senior Vice President of Enterprise Real Estate.
Whitehead describes the interior of the 160 Front Street West tower as a "free range campus," partly inspired by the kinds of open concept, untethered, and collaborative workspaces used in places like Silicon Valley.
The vision for the building is a campus where various lines of business within TD can move about and share workspaces, using whatever desks, meeting spaces and conference rooms they wish, effectively allowing teams to work in the spaces that are best suited to the task at hand.
Most of the TD employees that will work out of the 160 Front Street West tower will work in flexible workspaces, enabling not only greater efficiency, but also promoting greater collaboration across teams, and across business lines. These workspaces are designed to be highly adaptable, allowing the opportunity for our colleagues to change their work environment to meet individual and team needs. Colleagues can co-mingle, creating a natural fluidity to the business. Within the building, TD will occupy roughly 70-80% of the workspace.
The workspace within the building will also be complemented by significant amenities including food and beverage, wellness facilities and technology-rich meeting spaces that will come together to support an incredible colleague experience. Two notable features include an outdoor terrace and a breathtaking three-story "Skygarden" open space near the summit of the building, which will be used for meetings, galas and conferences.
While 160 Front Street West marks the latest and most visible example of TD's commitment to supporting and investing in Toronto, with its unique green uplighting and striking signage, TD's roots in the city run deep. From TD's longstanding relationship with the Toronto Blue Jays, to the commuter destination it is creating at Union Station through arts and culture events and amenities, to TD's iconic flagship offices at TD Centre, TD is dedicated to helping build a sense of community in Toronto.
The benefits of being an owner
What's more, the 160 Front Street West tower represents TD's most significant real estate milestone since the opening of the TD Centre in Toronto more than 50 years ago.
"From an investment perspective, we consider it a smart one," Whitehead said. "Real estate in Toronto continues to thrive, and with an ownership stake we benefit over time as rents go up."
TD has a long-standing relationship with Cadillac Fairview, and the two organizations have a good rapport, which helped give rise to the collaborative design process.
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Cadillac Fairview's vision for the image of the building is to cast a distinctive silhouette on the downtown skyline mixed with efficient design and environmental sustainability in both construction and operation. As well, the tower at 160 Front Street is designed to achieve LEED Platinum and WELL Building Standard certifications.
“Closing out our leasing efforts with our long-standing partner, TD, is a significant occasion for our two companies," Wayne Barwise, Executive Vice President, Development, Cadillac Fairview, said in a release.
"Together, in 1967 CF and TD took a bet on the Toronto skyline with the opening of Toronto-Dominion Centre, forever changing the intersection of King and Bay Streets. I’m thrilled that over 50 years later we continue to collaborate, grow and innovate together.”
In addition to TD, the tower will also be home to the new head office of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.