A prominent Toronto office tower is on its way to becoming a new rental community in the city. Amexon Development Corporation plans to transform one of the existing 15-storey commercial towers at 250 Ferrand Drive, near Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road, into rental lofts.
Amexon describes its e-lofts project as a “true transit-oriented community” offering contemporary loft-style living, with a focus on sustainability and connectivity.
“The condo math isn’t working in Toronto right now, but the purpose-built rental still works,” says Murtaza Haider, the Director of Research with the Urban Analytics Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, who adds retrofits like this simultaneously solve two different problems.
“Very high vacancy rates in the – not the top tier office buildings, but maybe B-class or lower buildings. And the second thing is the housing affordability and a lack of supply. And then even more so, a lack of supply or adequate supply of purpose-built rental housing.”
Haider says up to 20 per cent of the workforce now works from home, and there simply isn’t enough commercial demand to refill the old offices when tenants leave for shiny, newer ones. But he warns that not every stubbornly vacant office tower is an ideal candidate for conversion.
“The floor plan matters the most and the location of elevators, which has a huge input into the feasibility of converting an office building,” he says. “You can have a windowless office, but you certainly are not going to go for a windowless apartment.”
In this particular case, one of the project designers says the building was a very good candidate.
“Working on e-lofts allows us to craft living spaces that take full advantage of the building’s great ‘bones’ – the high ceilings, ideal floor plate, and exposed concrete elements,” said Dan Menchions at II by IV Design.
Haider adds Toronto planners may want to take some cues from those in Calgary, which was struggling with even higher office vacancy, more than 30 per cent in 2023. That number dropped closer to 23 per cent in 2024, in part from incentives offered by the city, which spurred these kinds of conversions.
“An empty or vacant office building is a nuisance, a liability for the landlord, a nuisance for the city … It’s not generating the revenue, it’s not generating the taxes.”
Amexon did not provide a target date for the project, but it is expected to have over 300 units when completed.
