[Updated Oct 2020]A guide to serviced offices and office space for rent in Toronto as well as general information that may be useful if you are thinking of renting office space in the city.
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Toronto and Ontario
Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the capital of Ontario, the country’s most populous province that also incorporates the national capital of Ottawa. While the nation’s official administrative business takes place in Ottawa, Toronto is undoubtedly the financial centre of the country and one of the main driving forces behind a consistently dynamic economy.
Located along the southern edge of Ontario, the city is now home to more than two million people and many of the largest corporations in North America. Only a few hundred years ago however the scene along Lake Ontario would’ve been very different indeed.
European settlement
The French were the first Europeans to settle in what is now Toronto when they briefly established Fort Rouille in the 1750s but this effort was soon outdone by the British after they officially acquired some 1,000 sq km of local land.
A more expansive fort renamed York was built along natural harbour lands but it was not enough to fend off an American invasion in the War of 1812. The fledgeling city, with its 9,000 or so inhabitants, was looted and largely destroyed during a week-long occupation.
Despite all this, the British colonial governance of Toronto was retained and various local uprisings proved unsuccessful. For a variety of reasons, not least the Great Irish Famine of the mid-19th century, the south-eastern regions of Canada became hugely popular destinations for European emigrants and the populations of Toronto and other nearby cities were swelled dramatically around this time.
Development and distilleries
A series of major development projects were instigated in the latter part of the 1800s as Toronto set about become a significant centre of commercial activity. An extensive sewage network was established, along with a street lighting system and a number of expansive railways. Many of the more striking examples of both public and private architecture date from this period and can still be found in certain enclaves of the modern city.
One of the most influential developments in the history of Toronto was its rise to prominence within the North American distillation industry. A series of enormous factories were built along the Lake Ontario harbour and this area of the city soon became one of the largest alcohol distillery districts anywhere in the world.
Economy
A great fire swept through the heart of Toronto just over a century ago but the city came back bigger and stronger with the help of another major influx of labourers from various parts of the world. For several decades, Montreal was regarded as the real workhorse of the Canadian economy but shortly before and after the Second World War, the Ontarian capital was able to establish itself not just nationally but worldwide as a hugely important commercial centre.
Since that time, Toronto has hardly looked back and is now recognised as one of the most important financial centres anywhere on earth. The Toronto Stock Exchange is in the top ten globally in terms of market value and just about all the leading Canadian businesses have an operating base in the city.
Toronto office space for rent
Downtown Toronto is one of the world’s leading financial industry hubs and its hundreds of giant skyscrapers make it an incredible sight at any time and from any angle. Telecoms, IT, publishing and media giants are based alongside Canada’s biggest banking and insurance groups in a central business district that few cities in North America or the world can match.
It was the strength of Toronto’s financial services sector, in particular, that was credited recently by Cushman and Wakefield with helping keep vacancy rates in downtown Toronto office space lower than in most rival cities in North America. With more than four million square feet of newly-developed offices coming on stream just as financial markets collapsed, the city’s office space was not expected to perform nearly as well as it has in recent years.
The outlook is positive in terms of demand for office space in Toronto but one of the major challenges the city’s commercial property market faces is how to make its buildings more environmentally-friendly. More and more emphasis is being put on the sustainability of office buildings worldwide and in Canada, in particular, there are growing calls for something of a retrofit revolution to take place. All of which means some of the older office space opportunities in Toronto are being overlooked in favour of generally more energy-efficient modern alternatives.
Transport
The scale of Toronto’s transport system is exceeded in the Americas only by New York and Mexico City. A huge number of rapid transit trains and street-cars (trams) criss-cross the city on a daily basis and serve the majority of the city’s commuters. Highways extend in and out of the city and can get you anywhere in Ontario that you might need to be and lead you out to the Canadian wilds in just a few hours.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Pearson International Airport sits a few miles outside the city and serves the entirety of the ‘Golden Horseshoe’, the heavily populated industrial zone that loops around the western edge of Lake Ontario. It is the busiest airport in Canada and carried more than 30 million passengers over the course of 2009.
Culture and tourism
Toronto is regularly rated as being one of the world’s best cities to live in and the rich array of world-class theatres, museums, galleries, ballet halls and performing arts centres has probably something to do with that. If you are a lover of art and culture then there are few places more vibrant in this regard than Toronto, as evidenced in part by the roaring success of its annual film festival, considered one of the most important to take place anywhere in the world.
Seeing the CN Tower is an absolute must for anyone visiting Toronto but since was the tallest free-standing structure on earth until 2007, you could hardly miss it. So, if you’re looking for another great place to visit in the Ontarian capital then you should certainly consider a trip to the old Distillery District, which is packed with heritage and has become one of the city’s top tourist attractions.
Sport
Sport is taken very seriously indeed in Canada and nowhere more so than in its single biggest city. Toronto is represented with varying success and acclaim in each of the five major North American sports, which means its teams are among the best in the world at ice hockey, baseball, basketball, soccer and American football.
Most of these teams take on rivals from the US in the major leagues on a weekly basis, with the exception of the American football team the Toronto Argonauts. Each team boasts stadia that are as good if not better than most in the world. High standards are maintained in each of these various sports but there is one game that stands out above all others as far as Torontonians are concerned – the city’s ice hockey team the Maple Leafs play at the Air Canada Centre to packed and passionate crowds who have helped their side to no fewer than 13 Stanley Cup victories so far.
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