As more and more workers return to downtown offices, the buildings they are returning to are rapidly being upgraded to welcome them. GWL Realty Advisors' One Adelaide East office tower is becoming the most recent example.

“During COVID, our largest tenant was going through an analysis of their space, and decided ultimately to consolidate out, which left us with an opportunity to reposition the building in the marketplace,” Devan Sloan, vice-president, asset management and leasing at GWL Realty Advisors, told RENX.

The company — which owns and manages One Adelaide East in Toronto — will be renovating an existing structure located directly beside the 30-storey, 688,674 square foot, class-A tower. It will become the property’s new amenity building exclusively for One Adelaide tenants.

The three-storey, 16,000-square-foot structure will be converted to a “wellness-focused,” building which will include a wellness lounge, yoga room, a fitness centre, conference room and tenant lounge.

Quadrangle will be the architect for the project, but Sloan declined to provide financial details about the renovations.

“We are going through the final strokes of the design process, so it’ll be a late 2026, early ‘27 finish,” he said.

Amenity building "final step" in One Adelaide upgrades

For GWL, the new facility represents the culmination of a very successful property purchase.

“This amenity building is the final step to round out what we consider to be a first-class offering in the marketplace.”

One Adelaide’s new amenity facility represents a “difference maker,” in a “challenging market,” he said.

“Having a building that was 50 per cent vacant at the start of 2025, and in the next month, we’ll be able to announce that we’re 99 per cent leased, it signals to tenants looking for office space that they’ve got a long-term partner in us as a landlord and we’re willing to invest in the tenant experience and really create an elevated offering.

“It’s a downtown, core holding for us, and we’re not afraid to invest and put the customer — which is the tenant — first."

The property was originally built in 1991 and has achieved LEED Gold and BOMA BEST platinum status. It has undergone a series of changes since being purchased, according to Sloan.

“We bought the building in the beginning of 2019, and we subsequently have gone through a renovation of the majority of the common areas, which includes the lobby and the PATH level, as well as a model-suite program for a lot of the suites that we’ve gotten back.”

It also includes many local amenities with the addition of more dining options. “We’ve got restaurants like CRAFT (Beer Market Toronto) on site. We’ve recently done a restaurant deal to add an additional restaurant off the lobby in the complex. We have a Michelin-star restaurant called Restaurant 20 Victoria,” Sloan said.

Providing an "upgraded experience"

All of these measures are designed to offer more of what today’s tenants are looking for, he said.

“People want an upgraded experience versus what they had five years ago, and they want a landlord that’s focused on providing those amenities for their employees, so they’re happy to come back to the office,” Sloan explained. “You’re trying to create a magnet; you’re trying to earn the commute.”

In such a competitive market as downtown Toronto, which is going through a “market transition, I think the customer always wins, and that’s certainly the case in this marketplace as well,” Sloan said.

“The competition obviously has got a little bit stiffer during COVID, and is very clear that tenants were making the choice to relocate to the best buildings downtown.”

This has also resulted in an enhanced focus on quality.

“You can see that in the data: the AAA office spaces are low, single-digit vacancy at this point and your C buildings are experiencing quite a bit of vacancy. You want to point your asset in the way of the highest quality you can to drive your occupancy,” Sloan said.

The renewed leasing activity, however, could soon put talk of an office market downturn behind us.

“I think there’s a lot of people rethinking the way that they’re using their office space. Tenants are finally coming out of the planning phase and moving into the executing phase," he observed. "So we’ve seen a lot of the large financial services tenants, tech tenants, being able to execute on those plans, and that’s resulted in a lot of space being leased and so we’re going to see some tailwinds in the office market this this year.

“We’ve been through the worst of the pain, and I’m pretty optimistic about the future of office space in Toronto right now."