Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 247

I've never been to Nashville, but I hear it's a pretty good city for music. According to this new report from PennPraxis , titled the Nashville Independent Venues Study , the city has 252 venues that showcase live music. And more than 100 of them are solely dedicated to music.

This gives Nashville one of the densest clusters of live music venues per capita, anywhere in the world. I also remember reading somewhere that the majority of venture funded startups in the city are in the music industry. So Nashville has a real music ecosystem going.

Of course, when you're really good at something it can create a dual-edged sword. In the case of Nashville, this success has led to growth, more bachelor/bachelorette parties being hosted in the city and, ultimately, developers wanting to build lots of new things.

Right now, the city seems to be grappling with how best to balance this growth against the preservation of its live music scene. And that's what this new report is focused on.

Yesterday afternoon, I took the 504 King streetcar from the Bloor-Dundas West mobility hub down to King & Bathurst to meet a friend at the Wheat Sheaf Tavern . In case you didn't know, this is believed to be the oldest continually-operating pub in the city . It opened in 1849.

My streetcar ride took an obscenely long time (over an hour) and so it was the wrong mobility choice for a peak summer afternoon. I should have biked. But once I did finally arrive at Toronto's oldest pub, it was great to see all of the activity happening right at the intersection for the new King-Bathurst subway station (Ontario Line).

I'm always a bit cynical when it comes to transit plans. Like, it's hard for me to believe that something is actually happening. I'm still waiting for SmartTrack to open . So I need constant visual reminders like these:

What you are seeing above is the northeast corner of the intersection, which is where one of the two station entrances will go. Naturally, the station platform and track itself are also aligned on a diagonal so as to minimize " significant construction impacts " to the Wheat Sheaf (southwest corner).

This stop is also one of Infrastructure Ontario's Transit-Oriented Communities , which means the intent is to have a private developer build things on top of the station. Directionally, this is, of course, the right approach. It didn't happen on the Eglinton Crosstown line; but we know that the best way to maximize the value of transit investment is to combine it with smart land use planning (the rail + property model). Density is your friend.

From what I could glean during my time on the patio at the Wheat Sheaf, all of this appears to be moving forward. And already today, there is a ton of foot traffic in the area -- meaning the future transit station should do very well from a ridership perspective. Now we just need this line extended up to the Bloor-Dundas West mobility hub so that the 504 streetcar can be relieved of some of its duties.

Station Plan/Rendering: Metrolinx and IO

The minimum size of a parking space in Toronto is 2.6 m wide x 5.6 m long. (It can change based on other factors, but this is all you need to know for today's post.) This works out to 14.56 square meters or ~157 square feet in area for a typical spot.

Building a parking space of this size in an underground or structured parking garage is very expensive. I have seen the former cost over $200k per space once you include everything else that goes along with building below-grade parking.

However, this opinion piece reminded me that if you'd like to rent an equivalent area on the streets of Toronto, you can do that for a lot less. If it's your first vehicle permit and you have no on-site parking where you live, the 2024 cost is $22.19 (plus HST) per month .

That works out to a monthly land rent of approximately $0.14 per square foot.