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Frank Gehry's Planned Residential Towers, the Architect's Tallest, Mark His Return to Toronto

World-Renowned Building Designer Teams With Major Developers in His Birthplace
Frank Gehry's Forma development includes the architect's tallest residential towers ever, buildings that developers hope will reshape Toronto's skyline. (Rendering courtesy of KG&A)
Frank Gehry's Forma development includes the architect's tallest residential towers ever, buildings that developers hope will reshape Toronto's skyline. (Rendering courtesy of KG&A)
CoStar News
July 6, 2023 | 3:31 P.M.

World-renowned architect Frank Gehry, now 94 years old, jokes about running out of time as he breaks ground in his birthplace of Toronto on a pair of the tallest residential buildings he's ever designed.

He will be close to a centenarian in 2028 when the two towers, reaching 73 and 84 floors high at 266 and 276 King St. W, have tenants start moving. Still, the project known as Forma is already the talk of Canada's largest city because while cranes dot the landscape in Toronto, fewer developments are breaking new ground.

Interest rates have skyrocketed and renewed economic worries abound as the Bank of Canada raised the spectre of even higher borrowing costs. In the face of that, the Gehry project is backed by a group that includes Toronto's leading theatre impresario David Mirvish and three powerhouse developers: Great Gulf Group, Dream Unlimited and Westdale Properties have defied the odds and already sold $1 billion of units in the two Gehry buildings going up.

Frank Gehry speaks at a groundbreaking for the tallest residential tower he has ever designed. (KG&A)

But for Gehry, the project represents an opportunity to create public space in a unique building designed with a nod to a modern feel and look, changing Toronto's skyline.

When it comes to the towers being completed, "I can't wait," Gehry joked at a groundbreaking event. "I expect to be here. I will be about 102, I think, so pray for me."

Artists as Architects

Gehry, who was born in 1929 in Toronto and now calls the Los Angeles area home, considers architecture an art form. His designs include Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago.

"Some of the greatest artists were architects. It is a seamless progression between art and architecture," said Gehry at the event. "I've spent a lot of my time with artists and artist friends, and some of them knew an art dealer called David Mirvish in Toronto. I would come and meet with him, and he would show me some of his artists, and we bonded."

The architect was referring to 78-year-old Mirvish, the Canadian art dealer and the leading theatre operator in Toronto, whose father was the late discount department store owner Ed Mirvish.

The Mirvish family eventually began developing some of the sites, including land on King Street West, blocks from landmarks like the CN Tower and Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays.

"I used to hang out as a kid [on King Street]. My grandma's house was on Beverley Street, just a few blocks from here," said Gehry. "I knew the neighbourhood and still feel part of it."

The architect called his newest building a public space, which happens to be vertical.

"You think about buildings like Rockefeller Center where public buildings create an ensemble of space, and they exist years and years later," said Gehry. "I believe this will have the same impact."

The project, which includes 2,034 units, brought together the three developers under one roof with Mirvish, who opened his first art gallery in Toronto in 1963.

"Great Gulf, Dream and Westdale are the proud stepfathers to Forma. The true papa was city builder David Mirvish," said Mitchell Cohen, chief operating officer of Westdale. He noted it was Mirvish who first met Gehry with a vision for the property.

Mirvish told CoStar News in an interview he met Gehry in 1971, after an artist whose work he was showing asked to bring the architect to dinner because he had just designed his studio.

"I watched everything he did over the years. He was such a creative force, and I thought, why are we not using him in this country," said Mirvish. "Others had developed buildings, but they were all B+, and I thought we could do better. I wanted to give him as big a canvas as we could."

The development comes amid falling home sales in Canada's largest city, at least compared to a year ago. The Building Industry and Land Development Association reported 2,391 new home sales in April, down 35% from a year earlier and 30% below the 10-year average.

New condominium apartments, including units in low, medium and high-rise buildings, stacked townhouses and loft units, saw 1,327 sales in April, down 57% from April 2022 and 39% below the 10-year average.

Against that backdrop of slowing sales, Mirvish said finding financing in Canada for a project of the size of Forma would never be easy.

"It took the three biggest developers in the country to do this, and they did a brilliant job with it," said Mirvish.

Financing Today Difficult

The owner of Great Gulf Group, Elly Reisman, acknowledged today's difficulties in getting financing. Great Gulf Group includes Ashton Woods Homes, the largest private homebuilder in the United States. The financing for Forma involved six banks and almost $800 million, Reisman said.

"In 45 years of development, this is the first time I have spoken in public. We are a very private company," said Reisman, "But there are not many grand openings like this, and I thought it was important to say something.

"Not even a handful of developers can do this, and without the financial support of our banking system, it wouldn't get built," he said.

In an interview with CoStar News, Reisman said financing is "many times harder" today, even for the three companies involved.

"Financing is always a risk. We have relationships with every one of the six banks. Banks invest in people, not just companies. They know Dream, Westdale and Gulf," he said. He added that the ability to get financing was something he thought about before buying the property.

Holding on to land is a costly exercise, one most of the public doesn't understand. "They think we are greedy, and we are, but greed evolves into legacy. We get a legacy from a building like this we can't calculate. It will be international. This will be part of the skyline of Toronto."

Reisman said his late brother Norman, who had a passion for architecture, was part of the deal to buy the property from Mirvish. Great Gulf later brought Dream and Westdale into the project.

Not Easy Builds

"But without people like David, this city doesn't do great things. This city only does great things with people like David," said Reisman.

David Mirvish (left) with Frank Gehry at a groundbreaking ceremony in downtown Toronto. (KG&A)

Reisman said the building might accomplish one thing no other tower has done. "If I have to look at one more picture of someone taking a shot of Toronto and making the CN Tower the representation of this city, I am going to throw up. This will be part of the skyline. This city has built hundreds of glass towers that mostly stand for nothing."

As for the overall market, Reisman noted most of the company's business is in America, so he has a larger global perspective on housing.

"The market is pretty strong, and [interest] rates will probably settle around 5%. It was silly at 2% or 3%," said Reisman. Canada "is dependent on immigration, and if they shut off immigration, housing will shut down. Interest rates go up and down, but housing, there is a shortage of it."

Westdale's Cohen tells CoStar News the $1 billion in sales were driven by a few good months of market conditions before slowing a bit.

"But it shows a good building in a great location still sells," he said, noting the average price per square foot was $2,000. "The profile of buyers runs from young people to investors to empty-nesters. They all want to achieve the same thing, buy a Frank Gehry piece of art."

Ben Myers, president of Bullpen Research and Consulting, said there is softness in the market, but he notes construction starts are a lagging indicator.

"We are likely to have fewer launches this year," he told CoStar News. He noted a pickup in activity after the Bank of Canada paused rate hikes for a few months.

As for Forma, he said he was surprised the project launched in the summer of 2022, but it had been in the works for five years. While he expects that work to pay off in an eye-catching building, he's not quite sure the CN Tower built in 1976 will stop defining the Toronto landscape.

The Gehry building "might be part of a silhouette with the CN Tower and SkyDome," Myers said.

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