CIBC Square – a pair of office towers at 81 and 141 Bay St., east of Toronto’s Union Station – was built with the intention to prioritize flexibility, inclusion and well-being. Connecting both towers is an elevated sky park that was built atop the city’s busiest rail corridor.Supplied/WilkinsonEyre
A prime roster of tenants, such as Microsoft and the Business Development Bank of Canada, is moving into the new and fully-leased Bay Street office towers, now considered the treasure of Toronto’s Financial District.
Full occupancy of the pair of buildings – each with gleaming windows forming diamond patterns – is a welcome shift after COVID-19 lockdown measures hollowed out the downtown core and office vacancy rates hovered at 13.5 per cent, according to real estate firm CBRE.
The AAA-class, two-tower CIBC Square has been built atop the former sites of a bus station and parking lots at 81 and 141 Bay St. – east of downtown’s Union Station and Scotiabank Arena. The first building at 81 Bay St. opened in 2022, while tenants are expected to take initial occupancy of the second building in the coming weeks, with phased move-ins planned throughout 2026.
“Our goal with CIBC Square was to create a workplace experience that prioritizes flexibility, inclusion and well-being, along with the space, technology and amenities our teams need to connect and collaborate,” says Tom Wallis, senior director of public affairs at CIBC.
Premium amenities, optimal transit access
CIBC Square features three-million square feet of office space and an expansive food court alongside a public park elevated over Toronto’s busiest rail corridor that connects local and regional transit.
Its twin buildings consolidate offices of CIBC’s global headquarters, which were previously scattered across Toronto.
“We now have one of the most modern office spaces in North America,” says Mr. Wallis. “Our team has embraced it with best-in-class employee experience scores. There is strong demand from talent to join our team and positive client feedback about our event spaces.”
The daily lunch hour sees streams of office workers heading up the long elevator to the fourth-level TABLE Fare + Social food hall, which features fast-casual restaurants such as Aloette and Misoya Ramen, and is adjacent to the sky park with seating and picnic zones.
On the lower levels, commuters can access GO trains and regional buses, while a walkway across Bay Street links to Union Station and Toronto’s subway and streetcar network.
CIBC Square, which features three-million square feet of office space and an expansive food court, is uniquely connected to local and regional transit. Its twin buildings consolidate offices of CIBC’s global headquarters, which were previously scattered across Toronto.Wallace Immen
Building alongside Toronto transit
Designing and building the towers around the busy transportation hub east of Union Station was a unique challenge, says Dominic Bettison, director at U.K.-based architect WilkinsonEyre, which won a 2014 international design competition that was sponsored by real estate company Hines and the real estate division of Quebec pension fund manager La Caisse. Both are equal partners in the development and management of CIBC Square.
The land on either side of the rail corridor had always been an industrial void of bus bays and parking, Mr. Bettison says. “Our proposal stood out for its master-planned approach. Rather than seeing the rail tracks as a barrier, we proposed an elevated sky park as a way to connect south Bay Street to the Financial District.”
WilkinsonEyre was named as the design architect responsible for the overall design, planning approvals and construction documents. Meanwhile, Toronto’s Adamson Associates was named as the executive architect, overseeing technical execution, logistics and building-code compliance. Ultimately, WilkinsonEyre’s unique approach to building around the rail system helped the firm win the bid as design architect.
“To skirt the rail corridor, we designed a shoring system of reinforced concrete pillars that serve as a rigid sleeve, enabling deep excavation immediately adjacent to active tracks without causing soil settlement,” says Mr. Bettison.
The fourth-level food hall, TABLE Fare + Social, features several fast-casual dining spots, including Aloette and Misoya Ramen. There’s also a pool table for lunchtime entertainment at CIBC Square’s food court.Wallace Immen
Connecting the structure’s puzzle
The most daunting aspect of the construction was connecting the Metrolinx regional GO Bus Terminal, Mr. Bettison says. The old terminal occupied 141 Bay St., which is now the site of CIBC Square’s second tower.
“To keep transit running, we had to construct a new terminal within the base of the first tower (81 Bay St.), while the old one remained active on the other side of the tracks,” Mr. Bettison adds.
Designing the elevated one-acre CIBC Square park that connects the two buildings over the rail corridor also presented design and construction challenges. Work could only happen overnight when trains didn’t run and power could be shut off.
Cast-iron Victorian canopies over the passenger platforms were recently refurbished and are protected heritage features.
“The park also had to be at least 15 metres above ground level to allow for future train-line electrification, and this, in turn, created challenges in terms of getting people up and down from the park,” Mr. Bettison explains, saying his team solved the issue by building multi-floor escalators and a series of separate exterior staircases.
Lease-up signals demand for AAA space
The full lease-up of 141 Bay St. is a clear signal of sustained demand for modern, transit-connected office space that offers premium amenities in Toronto, says Steve Luthman, global head of real estate at Hines.
As companies turned to hybrid working arrangements and reduced their office space commitments during the pandemic, plans for new developments were shelved. Vacancy rates also rose, particularly in older buildings outside the city core.
In 2026, as workers return to office, demand is growing for newer buildings with the latest technology close to the downtown core, says Molly Westbrook, executive vice-president and managing director of CBRE’s Canadian head office in downtown Toronto.
CIBC Square is the last significant office project in development in Toronto from the post-millennium building boom that took place between 2000 and 2020. This period saw a half-dozen modern buildings with high-tech features and amenities attract tenants from older office buildings in what industry experts are calling a “flight to quality,” CBRE says.
Now, Ms. Westbrook is cautiously optimistic that Toronto’s downtown office market will be poised to boom once again.
“We have seen over one-million square feet of new leasing in January 2026 and close to half-a-million more in February of 2026,” Ms. Westbrook says. “If this healthy momentum continues, the market will be potentially primed to break ground on a new office tower amid declining vacancy in the mid-term future.”