Harbour Plaza Toronto | 5 Reasons To Get Excited About Harbour Plaza Residences
5 Exciting Harbour Plaza Toronto Features
Harbour Plaza (office tower not shown) as seen from the north
Harbour Plaza Residences are here and I can tell you it was worth the wait for this project! If you have been on the fence wondering what would be a great project to invest in in 2013, look no further. Here are 5 reasons why I’m loving this project!
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1. Harbour Plaza Residences Will Have A Direct PATH Connection
The most obvious selling feature of Harbour Plaza Residences is that the buildings will be directly connected to the PATH network. Buildings that are directly connected to the PATH network downtown far outperform similar buildings that are right across the street. This we’ve seen time and time again downtown. People love the fact that you can live in a building and get access to hundreds of restaurants, shops, subway stations, venues, hotels, office towers etc. without ever having to go outside! Very convenient in Canadian winters!
In the case of Harbour Plaza, the connection is even better than normal because instead of just going underground where you see no daylight, it is going to be connected via a sort of ‘sky bridge’ – a glass enclosed tunnel that is climate controlled all year round and will take residents right under the Gardiner Expressway and into the Air Canada Centre / Union Station or the new RBC office tower on Queen’s Quay. Some serious cool factor here!
PATH connection tunnel will go under the Gardiner expressway
PATH connection on the south side to RBC Waterpark tower over Harbour Street
2. Harbour Plaza Residences Will be Located Across The Street From a NEW Park
There is already a fairly decent little park across from where Harbour Plaza will be located at Harbour and York Street, but it will be 100% improved when Harbour Plaza is built because they are removing the off-ramp from the Gardiner that currently cuts through the middle of the park. Â That’s right, the off-ramp will be completely gone and replaced with a new one that will go unto Simcoe instead. So the only thing between your front door at Harbour Plaza and the lake will be a park – not bad!
Early rendering of the new park
The horse shoe off ramp will be gone
3. Harbour Plaza Residences Will Feature 10,000 NEW Jobs At Your Door
Harbour Plaza will be connected directly to not 1, but 2 new office towers – One York (lead tenant: HOOPP) which will have about 800,000 square feet of office space, and RBC Water Park Place (lead tenant: RBC) which will have about 900,000 square feet of office space. This is just new office space, it will also be connected to all the existing office space of the South-Core Financial District as well (about 30,000 new jobs total in this area by 2017).
All this new office space of approximately 1.7 million square feet translates into roughly 10,000 new jobs. As an investor you have got to love having a residential property that is directly linked to where 10,000 professionals go to work every day!
One York Office tower fronting onto York street
RBC Waterpark 3 Office tower fronting onto Queens Quay
4. Harbour Plaza Resdiences Will Feature 100,000 Square Feet of New Retail Space
Harbour Plaza will also contain about 100,000 square feet of retail space in the 5-level podium. Each level will be double-height which means the lowest floor of the residences in the building will be about 100 feet above the ground. Much like the wildly successful retail component to Maple Leaf Square which contains many shops, first-class restaurants and bars, and a Longo’s grocery store, the retail component at Harbour Plaza will be a significant reason why it will always be an attractive place to own or lease a condo. The rumors are already circulating that a major US Based retailer will make one of the levels their newest location in Toronto, but shhhh you didn’t hear that from me 😉
Retail shops on Harbour with extra wide pedestrian sidewalk similar to Bloor Street in Yorkville
5. Harbour Plaza Residences Will Have Five Star Amenities
The major benefit of having 1200 units in your building is that you can have some spectacular amenities because the cost is spread out over so many units, thus keeping the costs down for all. I’m very intrigued by the water feature that will flow from outside in the 4th floor courtyard inside the lobby area of the amenities level. Other amenities will include an indoor pool, massive gym with several different rooms, steam rooms, party rooms, lounge areas, outdoor spaces, business centre, juice bar, and even an on-site recreation coordinator!
Early rendering shows the 4th level courtyard in between the two residential towers and the office tower at Harbour Plaza.
