Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 253

There are parts of Toronto that are pedestrian only. There's the Distillery District, some small laneways in Yorkville, the Toronto Islands (though this is a bit of a unique situation), and various other pockets around the city.

There are also streets that we temporarily open up to only pedestrians, such as Market Street and King Street, and areas, such as Kensington Market , that we have been rigorously considering pedestrianizing for as long as I can remember.

What is clear is that pedestrian-only streets are controversial. Motorists fear that it will make driving in the city even more inconvenient. And businesses fear that it will limit their customer base.

While it is true that not all streets can and should be pedestrianized, there are countless examples of streets and areas that appear to be thriving because of it.

Take, for example, Montréal.

Since 2021, the city has been pedestrianizing a stretch of 30 blocks along Mont-Royal Avenue during the summer months. And according to Mayor Valérie Plante , the commercial vacancy rate for the street has dropped from 14.5% in 2018 to 5.6% in 2023:

https://twitter.com/Val_Plante/status/1677358816235515904

Maybe you don't want to infer causality here, but at the very least, it seems to suggest that the street isn't dying and bereft of human activity. This year, pedestrianization is also planned to be extended further into the fall.

This won't necessarily be the outcome for all streets, but I do agree with this recent Globe and Mail article that, oftentimes, the reasons for not pedestrianizing are "a question of philosophy, not geography." Because there's lots of research and data to support doing this.

If any of you are business owners along Mont-Royal, I'd love to hear about your experiences and how you think, for better or for worse, it has changed the area. Leave a comment below or drop me a line.

First, the why . The why is to build better cities. And it's as simple as that. I love cities. The team loves cities. And we all feel a great sense of responsibility when it comes to doing our part to make them more prosperous, more beautiful, and overall better places to live and work.

It is for this reason that Globizen refers to itself as a city builder. We obviously didn't invent this moniker, but we do take it seriously. And our specific intent is to be both a city-building company and a city-building community .

What this means is that we do the things that most companies do, including trying to make money. But in parallel to this, we also aspire to create a community of like-minded city builders.

City building isn't just about real estate development. It's also about the artist that just painted a mural, the local restauranteur that just opened up a new concept, and the individual that just did something, whatever that may be, to improve their community.

We would like to do our part to celebrate these actions and support more of them. This is how we want to build.

As for what we actually do, we are developers of creative mixed-use infill projects. Currently, we are developing and managing projects on our own account (we invested our own equity) and on behalf of great partners . But in all cases, we have a consistent investment philosophy and approach to development:

• Focus on fundamentals

• Search for overlooked assets and opportunities

• Embrace non-consensus views

• Create value by innovating with design, culture, and technology

• Execute with discipline and passion

• Think long term

We are actively looking for new development opportunities. We are also exploring/underwriting a number of income-producing asset strategies. If you'd like to pitch us a site or project, or you just want to grab a coffee somewhere cool, please feel free to send me an email (brandon.donnelly@globizen.com).

https://youtu.be/erHe_WF4D1s?si=k0boyRmdSHrf8Y2r

Street networks tend to be pretty sticky. Meaning, they tend not to change very much, or at all, over time. We have spoken about this before, over the years .

A good example of this is Broadway in Manhattan. Broadway is a world-famous street. And it's perhaps no coincidence that it's also the only street that runs the full length of Manhattan and breaks across the city's regular street grid.

The exact reasons for this are somewhat nuanced. And for a more fulsome backstory, I recommend you watch Daniel Steiner's recent video on the topic (embedded above).

It is alleged that Broadway started out as the Wickquasgeck trail. Meaning it pre-dates the arrival of Europeans to the island. But regardless, we know that it came before New York's famed Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which is the plan that gave the city its grid.

So it would appear that, sometimes, even the most rational of plans can be no match for something even stronger: a street that already exists.