Yahoo! Canada ‘ Toronto Office

I had the pleasure of meeting Joanne Acri (@joanneacri) and Sarah Bradley (@sbradley) last week to tour the Yahoo! Canada Toronto office at 207 Queens Quay.  We sat down to discuss the building, the landlord and why Yahoo! decided to move their offices from Front Street down to the lake front.

It doesn’t take much to make a good impression with me when I meet clients for a first time so when I walked into reception and was offered candy and coffee it was off to a great start.  Joanne and Sarah lead me into the lunchroom where we chatted about the corporate culture at Yahoo! (conclusion awesome!).  The lounge / lunchroom we were in was outfitted with a Foosball table and arcade game and was surrounded by flat screens tuned in to the latest news from CP24.  If you are interested in hearing more about the corporate culture or Yahoo’s space you can reach out to Joanne or Sarah directly via Twitter, I’m sure they’d be happy to help you out!

From a commercial real estate / building perspective, here are some of the things you should think about before you consider 207 Queens Quay as a tenant.

The Good

The lobby show’s very well, as do the common areas.  The building is occupied by tenant’s like Bell Canada and Wind Mobile, so you’re in great company.  The building is run by Brookfield, one of the top property managers in Canada (if not the world).  What really blew me away was the views over the lake and the incredible natural light.  This was the feature that Joanne and Sarah suggested was was their favorite too.

The Tough

The most problematic thing with 207 Queens Quay was getting there.  A quick 10 minute walk from the Financial Core can feel a lot longer in winter.  On the flip side, in the summer, the area can become inundated with tourists which can drive up prices at local restaurants.  The volume of people and traffic can be hectic and get frustrating if you need to leave the office quickly to get to a meeting.  That being said, it’s located right smack in the middle of Toronto’s waterfront and the boardwalk offers incredible outdoor opportunities, particularly in the warmer months.

Overall, I was encouraged with the building and can see tenants overcoming the difficulties of the location to get an A+ landlord and into a great building with some of the coolest tenants and views a building can offer.

Thanks for the tour guys!

All pictures can be seen on my blog linked below: OfficeSearchToronto.com