The 30-storey tower at 1 Adelaide St. E. and the 13-storey building at 33 Yonge St. (pictured) are approaching a full lease-up after GWLRA, which owns both the properties, renovated the lobbies and added luxury amenities.Wallace Immen
After the postpandemic hybrid-work era caused a contraction in Toronto office leases, one building owner is reimagining two of its Financial District towers into attractive hotel-inspired properties with world-class amenities.
The result? 1 Adelaide St. E. and 33 Yonge St. are approaching a full lease-up.
The 30-storey Adelaide Street East building and the 13-storey Yonge Street property, which was recently renamed Berczy Square, are owned by GWL Realty Advisors Inc. (GWLRA). Both Class A towers respectively saw low occupancy rates of 50 per cent and 60 per cent, after major tenants, such as CIBC and Scotiabank subsidiary Dynamic Funds, vacated in the years immediately after the pandemic.
Now, GWLRA is attracting employees back to the office through the towers’ upgraded designs, high-tech elevators, fitness centres and conference facilities.
The move dovetails with how Canadian landlords are responding to office vacancy rates across the country.
Landlords rethink office space
Landlords nationwide are focusing on providing more amenities to attract workers back to office life, says Annie Bergeron, principal and design director in Toronto for international design and architecture firm Gensler.
A recent survey from the Gensler Research Institute, the firm’s research and insights arm, found Canadian offices are undergoing a “workplace reset” driven by hybrid work, AI integration and a demand for more flexible environments.
As some employers mandate a return to office, many are focusing on adding amenities that make in-person work more attractive than working from home. For instance, some owners have added indoor and outdoor lounges, bicycle storage spaces with shower rooms, gyms, yoga and meditation areas, as well as bookable event spaces.
“This is not about a full return to prepandemic ways, but rather a new normal where the office is the preferred work destination,” Ms. Bergeron says. “If landlords are paying attention to the work of the future, they should really endeavour to develop spaces that attract people looking for purpose in their workplace and encourage collaboration and productivity.”
The trend shows up in CBRE Canada’s latest office leasing survey.
Six of the 11 Canadian cities polled – Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg and London, Ont. – recorded increased net-leasing in the first quarter of 2026.
The building at 33 Yonge St. was recently renamed Berczy Square as a nod to the eponymous and adjacent Berczy Park, which features whimsical dog sculptures. The new Berczy Square has an upgraded lobby (pictured) with comfortable chairs and a fire pit.Supplied/Scott Norsworthy
Toronto’s leasing activity was the most momentous, with 1.9 million square feet of new leases reported in the first quarter.
Alongside the city’s leasing growth in the last half of 2025, downtown Toronto’s vacancy rate has dropped to 14.4 per cent, down from 18.3 per cent during the same period a year ago, CBRE found.
Much of the leasing uptake took place in the city’s most modern buildings and older office complexes that were recently renovated, says Brendan Sullivan, CBRE Canada’s senior vice-president of office leasing.
“The winners thus far have been the ones that have taken a strategic approach in delivering on the tenant’s demands and interests, and we expect that is going to continue for some time,” Mr. Sullivan adds. “It’s a signal that landlords who haven’t put investment in their buildings may want to invest because they’ll be left behind.”
Striking design, high-class amenities
GWLRA calls its renovated office buildings “destination workplaces,” says Devan Sloan, the company’s vice-president of asset management and leasing.
“The challenging market conditions for offices over the last five years have given us the opportunity to raise the bar on our amenity offerings,” he explains. “Tenants are looking to provide a total package – transit connection, quick and full-service food offerings, conference centres and fitness facilities to attract teams back to office life.”
Lobby reinvention was a priority for the buildings in GWLRA’s portfolio.
The upgraded lobby at 1 Adelaide St. E. features artwork, plants, seating areas and three food outlets: Hale Coffee, Craft Beer Market and Indian restaurant Touch. The amenities include a gym, yoga studio and a soon-to-open conference centre.Wallace Immen
The vast open atrium at 33 Yonge St. was designed in the early 1980s, and people tended to move through it just to get somewhere else, says Alison McNeil, partner at architecture firm DIALOG, whose recent clients include Centennial College and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Her firm won a design competition for the Yonge Street building’s atrium, which was developed with the aim of evoking a nature-inspired environment where workers could retreat for client meetings or informal discussions.
In the atrium, a wooden platform meant to resemble a patio deck features lounge chairs around a fire pit that uses water vapour illuminated by LED lights to create a realistic illusion of flames and smoke, Ms. McNeil says. Rising above it is a nine-storey-high LED-video screen that displays changing scenes throughout the day.
The renovations include a new private fitness facility, showers and lockers for commuters who bike and walk, five outdoor patios, two coffee shops, restaurants including Biff’s Bistro and Café Landwer, along with other takeout food options and a Tim Horton’s.
The building’s new name, Berczy Square, refers to the adjacent city-owned Berczy Park, which features a fountain with whimsical dog sculptures that is a popular tourist attraction.
Plug-and-play offices for tenants
At 1 Adelaide St. E., the lobby contains artwork and comfortable seating, along with three food outlets: Hale Coffee, Craft Beer Market and Indian restaurant Touch.
Amenities available to tenants include a gym, a yoga and movement studio, and a conference centre that’s being created in an adjacent, three-storey former Staples store owned by GWLRA.
The company outfitted modern office suites on spec to help tenants envision what their office would look like. This made it easy for tenants to move in, with the process remaining the most cost-effective and efficient way to attract new tenants, Mr. Sloan says.
“When you look back before 2020, tenants were taking on the construction. Now we’re creating fully-furnished plug-and-play spaces,” he explains. “Construction is always a pain point for organizations. They want to focus on their businesses and not the design and management of creating a new office.”
The refreshed modern spaces have attracted a range of new tenants to fill all but half of one floor of the 15 storeys that were vacant.
“For us it was a question of how do we give potential tenants as much attraction and value as possible to make them decide to say yes to a lease,” Mr. Sloan says.