Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 663

Today I am excited to share the first episode in a new film series about One Delisle and the surrounding neighborhood of Yonge and St. Clair in midtown Toronto. Created for Slate Asset Management by the award-winning UK filmmakers, Raspberry and Jam , the series is about telling the story of how Studio Gang's first ever project in Canada came to be. (Hint: It started with a neighborhood and not with an individual building.) Episode one is called "A Renaissance at Yonge and St. Clair" and you can view it over at onedelisle.com . Stay tuned for episode two and for the upcoming launch of One Delisle this spring.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3znry7WV82b7e6ihpFvTRj?si=Mq_6xSULQviKYE_uqQyF9g

Howard Lindzon has a podcast called Panic with Friends . It was started last March (hence the name) and he uses it to interview entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, and other business people about what they're up to. In today's episode he speaks with Harley Finkelstein , President of Shopify, about the future of ecommerce and about how they're positioning the company. What was interesting but not surprising to hear was that in the early years people didn't believe that Shopify had a large enough total addressable market. Supposedly, there weren't enough people out there who might be interested in starting their own online store. That, of course, has proven to be false and there are new and successful ideas emerging all the time. We're also now talking about how ecommerce is reshaping the landscape of our cities. Given all of this, the company has grown to think of itself as an entrepreneurship company. If you're at all ambitious, then you're an entrepreneur in their eyes and Shopify wants to be the platform for you. As a Canadian, it's great to see them doing so well. If you can't see the embedded Spotify player above, click here .

Surface Magazine just republished this 2016 interview with Arne Sorenson . Sorenson was CEO of Marriott, but sadly passed away this week after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

One of the questions he was asked in the interview was about the rise of Airbnb. This is how he responded:

" It’s fascinating. I hope we’re not as exposed to this as the taxi industry is right now.  Taxis in many cities are awful and hard to find. So here comes Uber with a better product. In the hotel business, I still think we can deliver better service, so we don’t have quite the same risk. Airbnb is fascinating. Increasingly, it’s less personal, and there are more dedicated units. The more they get into that space, they become a competitor. The story isn’t over, but we’re set up to compete well. "

Taxis were awful and that business model is done for good. But how do Sorenson's comments about Airbnb hold up today?

Marriott ended up launching its own home sharing platform in 2019 , but it's comparatively small as I understand it. There are also no shortage of bull cases for Airbnb (and just look at its market cap).

But there are also headwinds. Barcelona, for example, is looking to permanently ban people from renting out private rooms on a short-term basis (< 30 days). This is even if the rest of the home remains owner occupied.

So what use cases remain? Only extended stays?

If I look at my own pre-pandemic travel record, I am largely in the hotel camp. I like the consistency and I like certain brands. But maybe that's just me getting older. What do you all think? Leave a comment below.