Comment 64542

By Art Brut (anonymous) | Posted June 03, 2011 at 14:00:33 in reply to Comment 64496

Not a coincidence, no.

I’m sure that the cultural wavelength of James North was a key part of the draw, but in terms of correlation/causation, real estate values might also have an effect on decision-making. Thier Curran Architects reportedly needed more space at a time when scraping together square footage could’ve been prohibitive in their former location: Getting the current James North square footage out of the 86 Herkimer conversion ($200/sq ft) seems like it would have cost more than buying the entire 24,000 square foot building at 118 James ($700K).

That and, going off an old Streetbeat, TCA’s Bill Curran took on the old Dominion Furniture Building as a restoration project explicitly aimed at urban rejuvenation, in an area that has been essentially adopted by the city as an enterprise zone/investment showcase (Lister Block, 2206066 Ontario Inc.), and which has been the site of numerous projects by DFB project partner Tim Potocic.

There are other correlations, I’m sure – Toronto transplants, for example, cluster economies such as you'd see in Hess Village. But as has been pointed out elsewhere -- and leaving the straw man alone entirely -- it’s small, high-growth companies that are moving the yardstick. That's not something the city has traditionally been very good with, but they'll have to make it a comfort zone if they hope to make good on their economic projections through anything other than osmosis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcc8zZTKcdw

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