Veritable Satisfaction - Allied Properties REIT

11/8/05
6:39 PM
Page 2
Volume 24
Fall 2005
allied_fall05
Liberty Village • King West • King West Central • Entertainment District • St. Lawrence Market Area • Queen Richmond East
3
Game Boys:
Transgaming comes to KWC
2
Invest in Kids helps
parents help children
4
Finding Fall Furniture
8
A Room for Tasting
PLUS: Totum tackles fitness
myths, Neighbourhood Watch,
and Allied Properties buys more
space for the small users.
Veritable
Satisfaction
Verity’s Mary Aitken on her
Entrepreneurial Life
6
King West Central
King West
Central
allied_fall05
11/8/05
6:39 PM
Page 3
KWC Newcomer Invests in Kids
National charity formed to give children a healthy start
E
arlier this fall, King West
Central welcomed a new tenant
when Invest in Kids moved
to 425 Adelaide Street West. Founded
in 1993, this national, charitable organization, dedicated to helping parents
“become the parents they want and
need to be,” manages a number of
initiatives to encourage healthy social,
emotional and intellectual development of children from birth to age five.
Using research, a comprehensive
website, training institutes, multi-media
programs and the distribution of various parenting
“kits” (360,000 of its
resource kits are in the
hands of Canadian parents
today), Invest in Kids helps
parents guide their children’s
development.
In Canada, almost one
third of children under
the age of six have social,
emotional or learning
problems. Many of these
problems may be related to
a lack of positive parenting. According
to Canada’s National Longitudinal
Survey of Children and Youth, these
problems affect children from all
corners of our society, regardless of
socio-economic background.
Invest in Kids’ own National Survey
of Parents of Young Children found
that while 92% of parents believe
parenting is the most important thing
they will ever do, few feel prepared
for the job. Invest in Kids is the only
national charity solely devoted to
providing the resources and tools
parents need to help them make the
most of their children’s first five years.
It hosts two high-profile, annual
fundraisers: the Invest in Kids Battle
of the Brains, a gala, black-tie event
where 50 teams compete in a trivia
game show-style event (past hosts have
92% believe parenting is
the most important thing
they will ever do but few
feel prepared for the job.
included Alex Trebek, Red Green and
Evan Solomon); and the Invest in Kids
Celebrity Golf Classic that is host to
some of the biggest names in Canadian
sport including Bobby Hull and Marcel
Dionne, Olympians Marnie McBean
and Geraldine Heaney and world
champions Todd Brooker and Curt
Harnett.
www.investinkids.ca
10
NEW
ALLIED
BUILDINGS
FROM BATHURST TO BERKELEY STREETS, MORE SPACE FOR SMALL USERS
Early November saw Allied Properties
REIT grow considerably in Toronto
with the purchase Camwood
Properties’ office portfolio.
The acquisition, which boosts the
leasable space in the Toronto component of the firm’s portfolio to nearly
two million square feet, will enable it
to provide a broader range of solutions
to tenants and prospective tenants,
explained Michael Emory, the REIT’s
President and CEO.
“We’re particularly happy about
the fact that the new portfolio will
enable us to provide solutions to smaller
tenants, and tenants with smaller
requirements,” he added.
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
The portfolio is comprised of eight
redeveloped Class I office buildings
(the “I” stands for the original
industrial nature of the buildings)
and two Class I office buildings in
redevelopment, these include:
In the Downtown East Area
• 489 Queen Street East
• 100 Lombard Street (in redevelopment)
• 145 Berkeley Street (in redevelopment)
In King West Central
• 579 Richmond Street West
• 141 Bathurst Street
• 662 King Street West
In the Entertainment District
• 312 Adelaide Street West
• 208-210 Adelaide Street West
• 200 Adelaide Street West
• 116 Simcoe Street
662 King Street West
11/8/05
6:40 PM
Page 4
New Game in Town
Gaming technology is big business for incoming King Street West tenant
T
o hear Vikas Gupta explain it,
you’d think he has always been a
gamer. As the CEO and president
of TransGaming, a global leader in the
development of portability software
technology that allows games written
for one gaming system to be easily
deployed for another, Gupta speaks
knowledgeably of titles like SpyHunter,
James Bond 007: Nightfire and Medal
of Honor. But his background is more
business than recreation. Still, in the
multi-billion dollar world of computer
gaming, recreation is business.
“A multi-platform game
deployment budget can
be $60 million.”
– Vikas Gupta
“I wasn’t a big gamer, but I figured
I could help [TransGaming founder
Gavriel State] informally. Just do a
business plan, that sort of thing,” recalls
Gupta. He’d met State, through a former
employee, at State’s request. Gupta was
a successful entrepreneur with experience
in raising capital, and State wanted
his input.
“The more research I did on the
industry, the more I realized how
tremendous an opportunity there was
at TransGaming,” says Gupta who was
offered a role as the company’s president
eight months after that meeting in late
2000. Today, TransGaming has an R&D
centre in Ottawa and is scheduled to
move its Toronto-based business office
into 5,200 square feet at 445 King Street
West later this year.
Game Budgets in the Millions
In the gaming universe, there are three
types of companies, he explains. There
are system manufacturers like Sony,
Microsoft and Nintendo, developers
who actually do the programming of a
game, and publishers who work with
developers to produce a game (visuals,
packaging and marketing).
“We fit into the middleware, or
portability space,” says Gupta. “We
work with developers and publishers to
migrate content from one platform
to another.”
Many games are designed from the
ground up to function for only one
manufacturer’s system. Eventually, a
version is licensed for another system,
but that version must to be built from
the ground up. A game like Tiger
Woods 2006, says Gupta cost developer
Electronic Arts $25 million to develop –
just for Windows.
“When a game is a multi-platform
deployment, budgets can be in the
range of $40 to $60 million,” says
Gupta, adding that teams of as many
as 200 programmers will be working
on such a project.
The company’s product supports a
range of platforms, from Linux and
Mac to Xbox, PlayStation 2, and other
next generation devices.
While TransGaming’s technology also
applies to business applications, history
has demonstrated that games play a
key role in the success and penetration
of new consumer systems, a fact even
more true today than it has been in
the past.
www.transgaming.com
TransGaming’s portability
technologies have been
applied to games like…
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
TRON 2.0
James Bond 007: Nightfire
The Sims
Battlefield 2
Battlefield Vietnam
Medal of Honor
EverQuest
Star Wars Galaxies
World of WarCraft
City of Heroes
Saving 80% of
Re-development Time
Rather than develop code from
scratch, TransGaming’s solution
allows publishers and developers
to design in a single platform
then deploy it across a number of
platforms. It’s a sort of universal
translator that shaves off 50 to
80 percent of a game’s re-development time and expense.
TransGaming’s software
helps convert hit video games
like Battlefield 2 for other gaming platforms.
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
Kingcentral
West Central
King West
allied_fall05
St. Lawrence Market Area
St. Lawrence
Market Area
allied_fall05
11/8/05
6:40 PM
Page 2
NESTING IN STYLE: FURNITURE OPTIONS
From contemporary to comfy to Cappellini, local retailers offer a rang
The Cambridge shelving and storage unit
The Newport bedroom set
R-Shop
433 King Street West
416.408.2288
www.rshop.ca
Emilia, a sectional sofa system
R-Shop is bringing in designs that tend to shy away
from the hard and glossy look that has characterized
items such as sofas. Although you will still see a lot of
low, contemporary aesthetics, sofas, for example, are
deep enough to be comfortable and have larger cushions to offer more back support. The Ivan, a popular
seller, is one such example where comfort meets
modern Italian aesthetics.
Mobilia
35-41 Front Street East
416.360.8666
www.mobilia.ca
Mobilia’s fall collection maintains a focus on function,
introducing a number of new items, including Emilia,
a sectional sofa system that can be configured in any
number of ways. Adding a seating wedge to give it a
curved effect, or a love seat to make a right-angled
sectional, are just a few of the combinations. Also new
is the Newport bedroom set. Available in 13 colours,
this set’s bed frame is adjustable so that you can upgrade
to that queen size mattress without having to buy new
load of matching furniture.
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
The popular Ivan sectional
11/8/05
6:40 PM
Page 3
TIONS FOR DISCERNING URBAN TASTES
r a range of styles as the fall season triggers our nesting instincts.
The Marquis
recliner
Poliform’s Ubik walk-in closet in grey oak melamine
interior elements
The Capri
club chair
The Vintage
Zebra chair
439 King Street West
416.367.5850
High-end residential and commercial work is interior
element’s bread and butter. It has done installations
in a number of Rosedale homes as well as work
with the W hotel in Montreal. With furnishings
from Poliform, Minotti, Antonio Lupi, Arclinea
and Cappellini, as well as chandeliers by Lolli &
Memmoli, it’s a designer’s first stop to accessing
a wealth of cutting-edge European styling.
Acton Leather Co.
522 King West
416.203.7001
www.leathertown.com
When it comes to furniture, Acton Leather is primarily
focused on leather upholstery, although it does have a few
end tables and accessories. There’s a lot of leather furniture
in retail these days but owner John Brison says you can
tell a quality piece by lifting it. “Pick up the edge of a
chair or sofa, and if it’s really light, you can guarantee the
innards aren’t that great,” he says, explaining that anyone
can put a decent quality hide on a poor frame, but a buyer
shouldn’t expect to get much longevity out of something
like that. Offering high quality recliners, club chairs and
contemporary sofas, this store’s product mix tends to target
residents of smaller spaces.
From Poliform’s Varenna collection, the Matrix composition
kitchen in white glossy lacquer
Community Chronicle • Summer 2005
Kingcentral
West Central
King West
allied_fall05
Queen Richmond East
Queen Richmond
East
allied_fall05
11/8/05
6:40 PM
Page 4
PROFILE: Mary Aitken
Verity’s founder derives deep satisfaction from her club’s ability to help women
E
arlier this year, Mary Aitken
received an unexpected email
from a member of Verity, her
Queen Street East women’s club.
The woman had lost her job,
coincidentally, the day after she had
attended an Ideas@Verity session
on overcoming adversity.
“For me, the Verity experience and
timing was sustaining at a troubled
time, and I want you to know that
it made a very big difference,” she
wrote to Aitken.
“It’s one thing to create a deal and
build a financial services company,”
says Aitken, of her former life as an
investment banker, “but this is much
more tangible, to hear the stories of
these women.”
Part spa, part gym, part salon, part
networking centre and part restaurant,
the club is a space designed to provide
emotional, physical and intellectual
wellness to professional women, while
giving them a place to connect with
other like-minded individuals. And
not surprisingly, at its heart, you’ll find
someone intimately familiar with the
pressures of a modern life; one with
multiple careers and six children.
Playing the entrepreneurial game
At 56, Aitken is not new to the
entrepreneurial game, nor has she
been unsuccessful. In the late seventies,
after working for a British brokerage
firm, Aitken came back to her native
Toronto to start a courier service,
which she sold four years later during
a postal strike.
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
Despite turning a profit, she was a
single mom and needed to maintain
a steady income, so she worked as a
consultant for a couple of years until
founding Renaissance Securities in
1985 with her now-husband Peter
Gundy.
Securing financing for mid-cap
companies, Aitken followed a hardgrinding lifestyle of international travel
and multi-million dollar deals, but it
was wearing. Even though her work
helped to grow companies like AMR
Technologies into one of the world’s
top producers of materials for high
tech products and one that employs
more than 1,000 people, Aitken
wanted to affect people’s lives more
directly. “This is much more tangible,”
she says of Verity, which she founded
two years ago.
different needs of women began as a
few “what if ” conversations with
friends, which later took shape as a
business plan in 2001 and eventually
opened as a club early in 2004.
“There’s long been a tradition of
men helping and mentoring each other
based on meeting up at the golf club,”
says Aitken. “I wanted to give women
a place they could call their own that
could also serve this same function.”
What if there was a
place for women?
Once a player in a predominantly
male game, Aitken was acutely aware
that the demands of her home life
and career were very different from
that of her male cohorts. The idea
of a place that addressed the very
Membership is still growing and
among her biggest challenges, she
says, is convincing potential members
that they have the time for a club.
“Time is something most of these
women inherently think they don’t
have,” says Aitken with a knowing
smile. “But once joined up, our
“Time is something most
of these women inherently
think they don’t have.”
– Mary Aitken
11/8/05
6:40 PM
Page 5
TOTUM
The club’s subterranean oasis is home to one of the few
downtown pools (with limited access for large excavation
machines, it was dug by hand).
TIPS:
3 FITNESS MYTHS
Totum’s Tim Irvine sheds some light
on a few workout fallacies
Low-intensity cardio work alone will burn fat
Interval-based training will help you burn fat and tone muscle better
than just doing the same cardio workout every time. If you’re on the
treadmill, for example, rather than running for a long period of time,
try running quickly in short bursts. Irvine suggests between 30 and
60 seconds of really intense
work (a 9.5 out of 10 on the
effort scale) then walking for
90 seconds to recover. Do that
6 to 8 times. But remember
that with greater intensity
comes a higher risk of injury,
so work with a trainer who can
design a suitable program.
Always stretch before a workout
members tell us the club actually saves them
time by providing everything they need under
one roof.”
While her six children (a blended family) are
all grown up and have spread about the globe,
she is still living at full-speed as the demands
of running the club and the critically acclaimed
George restaurant are many.
Two early morning Pilates sessions a week and
daily power walks with her husband help Aitken
stay in shape, while running Verity, it
seems, feeds her soul. The degree to
which it is rewarding, she admits, is
in some ways quite unexpected.
Beyond helping professional
women, Aitken has also extended
services to the community through
an outreach program that brings
10 women every month from the
local Salvation Army to enjoy a Sunday
at the spa. What’s more, Verity hosts a
“100 Friends at Christmas” party for
Regent Park families.
“The concept of Verity was
intellectual,” she says with some
reflection, “but the reward has
proven to be an emotional one.”
www.verity.ca
Casual socializing between spa
sessions in the members’ lounge.
Post workout is when you should stretch. Research has shown that
there’s no benefit to stretching before a workout, says Irvine. Of course,
if you have a specific injury, that’s different, he says, you should do
those stretches as recommended, but
generally, Irvine suggests a doing light
version of the activity you’re about to
engage in. So if it’s running, do some
skipping or start your run at an easy
pace for 5 to 10 minutes. If it’s
weights, do body weight squats and
push-ups. “Use the muscles and joints
in the way they are going to be used
for whatever activity you’re about to
do. Just do it in a low intensity way,”
he says.
Strengthen your core with abdominal crunches
These are good for strengthening your abdomen in a very specific way,
says Irvine, but on a daily basis, you’re more apt to be using your core
strength to lift a box, pick up your child or even sit in an office chair for
a long period. “All these activities use your abdomen in a very different
way,” he says. Rather than
repeated crunches, engage in
exercises, like using the Free
Motion Cable Cross, that will
strengthen your muscles
throughout your trunk. “So
when you go to pick up that
heavy box, your body already
knows how to do it.”
www.totum.ca
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
West Central
King WestKing
Central
allied_fall05
allied_fall05
11/8/05
6:39 PM
Page 1
Wine Reserve’s Tasting Room a Cozy Spot for Meetings
W
hile storage is the Fine Wine
Reserve’s primary function,
owner Marc Russell has
constructed a 450-square-foot tasting
room that gives clients and guests a cozy
spot to enjoy a special bottle after an
evening at the theatre, or to bring a
group for a modest function.
The centrepiece of the room is a
beautiful 10-foot-long table made from
reclaimed Hemlock boards that are
more than 100 years old. It seats 14
people comfortably and another table
can be brought in to create seating for
an additional 10 diners.
Completely outfitted with convection
oven, fridge, dinnerware and stemware
for a party of 24 (there are even cheese
knives and boards), the Fine Wine
Reserve has already hosted a handful of
“We’re talking about
[tasting] wines that are
in the $60 to $75 range.”
– Marc Russell
tastings for clients. These events, says
Russell, typically feature rare, collectable,
and age-worthy wines that have a worldclass reputation, and are organized in
conjunction with wine distributors keen
to introduce new product to consumers.
“Generally, we’re talking about wines
that are more than $40 a bottle and often
in the $60 to $75 range,” says Russell.
While tastings are reserved for clients,
the room has been known to host a
number of board meetings. Given its
central location and the inherent privacy
it offers, it’s ideal for conducting business.
The Ontario Wine Society, The Young
President’s Association as well as Allied
Properties REIT have held meetings
there.
All clients of The Fine Wine Reserve
may book the room to host their own
private event (at no charge). Those who
prefer unlimited access to “drop-in” at any
time may do so by becoming a member
of the tasting room for $60 a year.
www.finewinereserve.com
Neighbourhood Watch
Verity Flowers Offers
Same-Day Delivery
Published four times a year by:
Allied Properties REIT
602 King Street West, Main floor
Toronto, ON M5V 1M6
Editor:
Yvan Marston
[email protected]
Design/Layout:
Gravity Design Inc.
[email protected]
Community Chronicle • Fall 2005
Serving mostly the downtown core, but
delivering throughout the GTA, Verity
Flowers opened shop in September and is
readying itself for the Holiday season.
A trained florist staffs the location, which
offers floral design services for weddings,
parties, showers, receptions corporate events,
Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs as well as
holiday bouquets. She can arrange same-day
delivery as long as she receives the order
before noon. You can also just drop in and
pick up a bouquet at the shop located in
Verity’s spa area at 111 Queen Street East,
or call to place an order. Contact Genevieve
at 416-368-6006 ext. 255.
www.alliedpropertiesreit.com