Helping to build a new neighbourhood
South Core’s personality develops as new Delta helps draw focus to the area
South Core Financial Centre is a bit young to have much of a personality, but the south Toronto neighbourhood already has a nickname — and that’s a start.
Rising at the corners of Lower Simcoe St. and Bremner Blvd., the newly dubbed Soco is still thick with construction dust. What was recently an uninviting stretch of land south of the train tracks and north of Lake Shore Blvd. W. is now a brand-new neighbourhood smack in the middle of the action. It sits amidst the Air Canada Centre, Ripley’s Aquarium, CN Tower, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Harbourfront, Union Station and the CN Tower.
Soco itself is officially a cluster of three environmental LEED Gold towers: the 26-floor PwC Tower, the 30-storey Bremner Tower and the newly opened Delta Toronto Hotel, a four-star flagship with 46 floors and 567 guest rooms that hopes to be the new community hub for the neighbourhood.
“We’re the first stand-alone hotel to be built in Toronto in 20 years. There are no condos as part of it, like the Ritz or Trump (hotels),” said Valerie Brive the hotel’s marketing and communications manager. “And we want (neighbourhood) people to feel welcome to come here.”
As such, the Delta has free Wi-Fi throughout the lobby area. Two kitchen areas are ready to serve: Soco Kitchen and Bar, a 150-seat restaurant, and Soco to Go, a 24/7 takeout counter where locals and workers can get something beyond fast foods or street vendor offerings. What’s unique is that the food will ultimately be served in tiffin boxes, a tiered and stacked system of food containers well known in India that keeps the meal’s elements separate until ready to be served or eaten. There’s also Char No. 5, a whisky bar in the lobby which will feature unique and rare Canadian whiskies.
The hotel is also adamant they won’t be charging “hotel food prices.
“We’re not selling $35 grilled cheese sandwiches, the food will be priced normally,” insists Brive. “We want the restaurants to have their own identity, so we’re not branding it as the Soco Kitchen and Bar at the Delta Hotel, it’s just Soco Kitchen and Bar.”
The executive chef is Daniel Craig — the James Bond of the kitchen — and he has a menu planned that will create a stir. He was tabbed as a rising star on Vancouver’s culinary scene where he was executive chef at Delta’s Burnaby e.b.o. restaurant. Toronto is a homecoming of sorts — he’s Ontario-born, though his career path has wound through Australia, Paris and the West Coast.
“Haven’t really thought about a signature dish yet but it might be smoked black cod,” he said recently, as he readied for the kitchen’s opening day.
“Or maybe sweetbreads. I do know it will all be seasonal and fresh — and local, wherever possible.”
Delta has also partnered with PwC,
“People need a reason to go there other than work. They want to linger, so you need to make it a reasonable place to spend time, to stroll.” LARRY BOURNE U OF T URBAN PLANNING PROFESSOR
Cisco Systems Canada, Telus Corp, Ripley’s, Porter Airlines, Steamwhistle and others to form the South Core Innovation Hub. It’s intended to spark discussion and be a forum for shared ideas about branding the neighbourhood and sharing best practices.
“We’re hoping those who work in the area and those living here will see us not as a hotel but as part of the community, to come here for a meeting, perhaps book one of our meeting rooms, sit in the restaurant or just have a coffee and use the Wi-Fi,” said Brive. She notes the hotel’s location amidst condos and businesses, and its PATH connection to Union Station and soon the new direct express rail link to Pearson Airport also starting next year.
The Delta Toronto hopes to play the role that the Gladstone Hotel and the Drake Hotel play on Queen West where, a decade ago, they spurred the rebirth of the funky strip. Similarly, Streetcar Development’s $15million makeover of the New Broadview Hotel — better known as Jilly’s Strip Club — at Queen St. E. and Broadview Ave., in Riverside, in conjunction with 555 condo units in the nearby design phase are also expected to revitalize the area.
Soco resident Martin Ham, 30, anticipates his neighbourhood’s growing vibrancy. He’s lived in the area for three years and said he loves the downtown lifestyle and being able to walk to everything downtown — including his job.
“There are lots of young professional people my age that I can meet there, too, so it’s a plus,” he said. “I am always looking for new places to eat and hang out with my friends,” said Ham, adding he went to Soco Kitchen and Bar’s soft opening and liked it. “I can totally see it becoming a hangout spot for all the condo guys like me nearby. It was really what was missing in the area, I think.”
University of Toronto urban planning professor emeritus Larry Bourne notes Soco is still an emerging area of the city that remains somewhat fragmented.
“There’s some marketing talk there (from Delta) but there is a grain of truth,” he said. “People need a reason to go there other than work. They want to linger so you need to make it a reasonable place to spend time, to stroll.”
Soco, he said, is now part of an eastwest “cultural corridor” which stretches from west of Rogers Centre and runs through to the Air Canada Centre.
The north-south links are “foreboding” and more needs to be done to make it pedestrian friendly, said Bourne, whose research includes neighbourhood and social change in cities, along with urban growth and sprawl.
“Wider sidewalks, more lighting, even some murals,” he said. “There needs to be public investment there.”
Looking at the larger picture, he adds, there are still big questions over the future of the Gardiner Expressway holding up development of the waterfront, which leaves the future of the East Bayfront hanging.
“All this development is going on without transit commitments and I doubt the city will ever have the resources for transit there,” he said, adding the challenge of new neighbourhoods like Soco is that the retail and commercial follows foot traffic. Ultimately, it’s those street-level entities which define a neighbourhood’s character more than the office and condo towers — and determine its personality.